Research Methods in criminal Justice

What is an abstract?

An Abstract is nothing more than a summary of the main ideas. Students will need a brief abstract for the

Unit 9 Final Project.

You are encouraged to wait and do the abstract in Unit 9 (Just skip it for the midterm).

What is an abstract? How is it used?

The abstract is a summary of the basic building blocks used in the research proposal. It will be slightly

different than an abstract for a paper or essay.

In a paper or essay, the abstract summarizes the main points of the document.

In a research proposal, the abstract summarizes the main research components (to be used) as

demonstrated with the topic.

In either case, an abstract is simple. It is just a summary of the main ideas, points, or methodologies.

The difference is what the author is summarizing.

In other words, the reader should be able to read the brief abstract and understand what the researcher is

proposing. In 2 or 3 paragraphs, you should be able to answer the following questions in narrative form:

What is the topic? What are the variables? What is the hypothesis? What is the design? What is the

population/sample? What are the data collection method(s)?