By: Fatu Badiane Markey
Up to this point in the we have covered how to construct an introduction and results section. Next on the agenda is putting together an abstract. The abstract and introduction at first glance can seem like redundant parts of your manuscript, but just like the results section and supporting figures, they should build off of one another as they each play a distinctive role in a paper.
The abstract is a short document that will be encountered by peers both within and outside your field of study, be they newbies or experts. From the abstract, the reader will make a decision as to whether to continue reading the rest of your paper. The abstract does not necessarily need to be an attention grabber, but it should present all the information for the reader to make an informed decision.
When writing an abstract, remember that it serves these main functions: to provide the main story with key details and to highlight important sections from the paper. The six main parts of the abstract include:
- Background
- Question, or gap in knowledge to be addressed
- Approach
- Results; only the most important findings
- Answer
- Interpretation
Abstracts for meetings can often be accompanied with data in figures or tables as well.
Signal words can help maintain order and will guide the reader through the parts of the abstract along with proper verb tense. For example, the background should be written in present tense with phrases such as “it is unclear whether” and “the mechanism is still unknown”. All other sections of the abstract will be in present tense except for the results and approach. This section is written in past tense and highlighted with phrases such as “in this study we” and “we found that”.
The hardest part of writing an abstract is staying within the character, or word limit. Focus on the purpose of the abstract and stick to presenting the most important pieces of information for the reader when writing. That’s it; short and sweet just like an abstract.
The information in this post was originally presented by Erika Shor, PhD (es783@rutgers.edu) in the Scientific Writing Workshop at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.