Case Study

WRITING THE PERFECT ABSTRACT

Five steps to writing an Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of the paper, allowing the reader to quickly review the main

points and purpose of the paper.

1. Write your paper. While the abstract will be at the beginning of your paper, it should be

the last section that you write. Once you have completed the final draft of your research

paper, use it as a guide for writing your abstract.

2. Begin your abstract on a new page. The best way of separating your Title page, Abstract,

and References pages is with a page break. The word Abstract is to be centered at the top of

the page and in bold.

1. Do not italicize or underline the word Abstract.

3. Keep it short. According to the 7

th edition APA style manual, an abstract should be no

more than 250 words (Ideally between 150-250 words). Your abstract should also be written

as only one paragraph with no indentation. In order to briefly describe your entire paper,

you will need to determine which topics are the most important.

4. Include Keywords. While this is an optional item under 7

th edition APA formatting,

keywords are an important element of the paper because it provides the reader with an

understanding of what is the focus of the paper. The word Keywords is to be indented and

italicized with three to five keywords frequently seen in the paper.

5. Structure the abstract in the same order as your paper. Begin with a brief summary of

the introduction, and then continue on with a summary of the specific topics or sections of

your paper.

1) Abstract. An Abstract should be between 150-250 words with 3-5 Keywords. An Abstract is NOT an introduction paragraph. An Abstract is a brief summary of what will be discussed in further detail in the body of your paper. Think of an Abstract as the Sneak Preview to your paper.

2) Double Spaced. 100% of your paper must be double spaced. This includes the Reference Page.

3) Finally, the Reference Page. References are to be listed in:

Alphabetical order

Retrieved from and the date are NO LONGER a requirement. You need to only list the URL.