The presentation gives the instruction how to write a good abstract

1. IVANO-FRANKIVSK
NATIONAL TECHNICAL
UNIVERSITY OF OIL AND GAS

2. Definition, Function and Purpose of an Abstract
Qualities, Types and Components of an Abstract
Writing an Abstract: Dos and Don`ts, Style and
Voice
Examples of a Mediocre Abstract and a Good
Abstract
Analyzing of Humanities and Science Abstracts

3. Abstracts: Definition
An is a self-contained
outline/brief summary of:
a paper,
a larger document,
a study,
a presentation.

4. when submitting articles to journals,
especially online journals
when applying for research grants
when writing a book proposal
when completing the Ph.D. dissertation or
M.A. thesis
when writing a proposal for a conference
paper
when writing a proposal for a book chapter

5. Purpose
Help reader decide whether to read
the text or not
Summarize the findings of the text
Help scholars find your article

7. Qualities of an Abstract
One or more well-developed paragraphs
Short (50-300 words; 3-5%)
Stands alone
Includes all the major elements of the
larger text
(in order)
No new information

8. Reason for writing:
What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the
larger work?
Problem:
What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the project?
What is the main argument/thesis/claim?
Methodology:
An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or approaches used in
the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the
research.
Results:
Again, an abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the
results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general
way.
Implications:
What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work? How
does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?

9. Descriptive Informative
• Used for humanities and • Used for sciences
social science papers or engineering or
psychology essays. psychology reports.
• Describes the major • Informs the audience of
points of the project to a all essential points of the
reader. paper.
• 50-100 words • About 200 words

10. Structure of an Abstract
Descriptive Informative
• Topic (background) • Topic (background)
• Research Question • Research Question (aim
(purpose) or purpose of research)
• Particular interest/ • Methods used
focus of paper • Results/findings
• Overview of contents • Conclusion

11. Writing an Abstract
over your paper and identify the key
points for each section
each section and shrink the
information in each down to 1-2 sentences
you have written one to two
sentences for each of the key points outlined
above
the ideas with appropriate
transitions

12. Writing an Abstract
and text as needed
the word length and further reduce your
words if necessary by cutting out unnecessary
words or rewriting some of the sentences into
a single
, and edit for flow and expression

13. • Uses only that is
, and is able to stand alone as
a unit of information
• Covers all the of the
full-length paper
• Contains
• Usually does not include
• In publications such as journals, it is found
, but in academic assignments
it is placed .

14. DOs:
repeating information from the title
• If many results, only the most
important
juts the major implications
to your purpose and research
question

15. Good Abstracts: Writing Style
• Use a clear and concise writing style
• Remove or shorten any unnecessary words or phrases
• Write in plain English understandable to a wider
audience, as well as your discipline-specific audience
• Use the language of the original paper, often in a more
simplified form for the general reader
• Use key words from the document.
• Introduce specific terminology
• If necessary, define unfamiliar terms, introduce
acronyms
• Avoid trade names, acronyms, abbreviations, symbols,
and jargon

16. Voice
• Modern scientific style prefers the active voice.
Iron bauxites sweetened gasoline in air.
• Abstracts are often an exception, but only if the
passive voice reduces the total number of letters
and words. Use passive structures in order to
report on findings, focusing on the issues for the
more general reader.
• Avoid using I or we, but choose active verbs instead
of passive when possible .

17. Mediocre Abstracts
abstracts read like a table of contents
in a sentence form
Example:
The behavior of editors is discussed. What
should be covered by an abstract is considered.
The importance of the abstract is described.
Dictionary definitions of “abstract” are quoted.
At the conclusion a revised abstract is
presented.

18. Mediocre Abstracts
• An improved example:
The abstract is of utmost importance, for it
is read by 10 to 500 times more people than
hear the presentation or read the entire article.
It should not be a mere recital of the subjects
covered, replete with such expressions as “is
discussed” and “is described.” It should be a
condensation and concentration of the
essential qualities of the Paper.

19. Example 1
Here is an abstract from a published paper. It is 220 words long. )
Major problems of the arid region are transportation of agricultural products and losses due
to spoilage of the products, especially in summer. This work presents the performance of a solar
drying system consisting of an air heater and a dryer chamber connected to a greenhouse. The drying
system is designed to dry a variety of agricultural products. The effect of air mass flow rate on the
drying process is studied. Composite pebbles, which are constructed from cement and sand, are used
to store energy for night operation. The pebbles are placed at the bottom of the drying chamber and
are charged during the drying process itself. A separate test is done using a simulator, a packed bed
storage unit, to find the thermal characteristics of the pebbles during charging and discharging modes
with time. Accordingly, the packed bed is analyzed using a heat transfer model with finite difference
technique described before and during the charging and discharging processes. Graphs are presented
that depict the thermal characteristics and performance of the pebble beds and the drying patterns
of different agricultural products. The results show that the amount of energy stored in the pebbles
depends on the air mass flow rate, the inlet air temperature, and the properties of the storage
materials. The composite pebbles can be used efficiently as storing media.
Helwa, N. H. and Abdel Rehim, Z. S. (1997). Experimental Study of the Performance of Solar Dryers with
Pebble Beds. Energy Sources, 19, 579-591.

20. Example 2
(Here is an abstract from a published paper. It is 162 words long. )
The long-term performance of various systems was determined and the
economic aspects of solar hot water production were investigated in this
work. The effect of the collector inclination angle, collector area and storage
volume was examined for all systems, and various climatic conditions and
their payback period was calculated. It was found that the collector
inclination angle does not have a significant effect on system performance.
Large collector areas have a diminishing effect on the system’s overall
efficiency. The increase in storage volume has a detrimental effect for small
daily load volumes, but a beneficial one when there is a large daily
consumption. Solar energy was found to be truly competitive when the
conventional fuel being substituted is electricity, and it should not replace
diesel oil on pure economic grounds. Large daily load volumes and large
collector areas are in general associated with shorter payback periods.
Overall, the systems are oversized and are economically suitable for large
daily hot water load volumes.
Haralambopoulos, D., Paparsenost, G. F., and Kovras, H. (1997) Assessing the Economic Aspects of Solar Hot Water Production in Greece.
Renewable Energy, 11, 153-167.

21. • Do not
Don’ts"this
commence with paper…”, "this
report…" or similar. It is better to write about the
research than about the paper. Avoid use of "in this
paper“, what other paper would you be talking
about here?
• Do not contain references
• Do not use sentences that end in "…is described",
"…is reported", "…is analyzed" or similar.
• Do not begin sentences with "it is suggested that…”
"it is believed that…", "it is felt that…"or similar. In
every case, the four words can be omitted without
damaging the essential message.
• Do not repeat or rephrase the title.

22. • Do not enumerate a list of topics covered; instead,
convey the essential information found in your
paper.
• Do not give equations and math. Exceptions: Your
paper proposes E = m c 2.
• Do not refer in the abstract to information that is
not in the document.
• If possible, do not use trade names, acronyms,
abbreviations, or symbols. You would need to
explain them, and that takes too much room.
The abstract should be about the research,
not about the act of writing.

23. This study (dissertation, research)
es The findings from the research...
aims to illuminate illustrate how...
examines the role of... show that the impact of [insert text] on [insert text] is
explores why... more complex than previously thought/assumed.
investigates the effects of... address a controversial belief among practitioners that...
assesses the impact of...on...
developed and tested the idea that... illustrate the antecedents and consequences of [insert text]
and [insert text] in...
suggest that the effect of [variable X] on [variable Y] was
This study (dissertation, research)... moderated over time when...
is motivated by two research questions: (1) [Insert research
question one] ?(2) [Insert research question two]? To
examine these questions, the study …
"[Insert a research question]?" is a fundamental question in The results, implications for managers, and future research
are discussed.
[the name of your area of interest].
Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of
the findings are discussed.
This study (dissertation, research)...
has three goals: (1) [insert goal one], (2) [insert goal two], provide
and (3) [insert goal three].
support for the key arguments.
support the prediction that...
This study advances our understanding of... support the model:
offer insights into...
Using comparative case analysis, this research explored the role prompt a re-thinking of [insert your area of interest]
of...

24. There are some tricks that you could use to condense a piece of writing that you have agonized
over for weeks (or months, or even years) into a 250-word statement.
– Write down the main idea of each paragraph on a separate piece of
paper.
– Try grouping the main ideas of each section of the paper into a single
sentence.
– For a scientific paper, you may have sections titled Purpose, Methods,
Results, and Discussion grouped around a central idea.
– Use reverse outlining to discover the central idea in each section and
then distill these ideas into one statement.
– To create a first draft of an abstract of your own work, you can read
through the entire paper and cut and paste sentences that capture key
passages.
– A well-written humanities draft will have a clear and direct thesis
statement and informative topic sentences for paragraphs or sections.
– Isolate these sentences in a separate document and work on revising
them into a unified paragraph.

25. You cannot summarize key ideas just by cutting and pasting. There are a few techniques that will help
you determine what a prospective reader would want to know about the work.
– Search through the entire document for key terms that identify the purpose,
scope, and methods of the work.
– Pay close attention to the Introduction (or Purpose) and the Conclusion (or
Discussion). These sections should contain all the main ideas and key terms in the
paper.
– Be sure to incorporate the key terms.
– Instead of cutting and pasting the actual words, try highlighting sentences or
phrases that appear to be central to the work.
– Rewrite the sentences and phrases in your own words.
– After reading the entire work, put it aside and write a paragraph about the work
without referring to it.
– In the first draft, you may not remember all the key terms or the results, but you
will remember what the main point of the work was.
– Remember not to include any information you did not get from the work being
abstracted.

26. Revise, revise, revise
No matter what type of abstract you are
writing, or whether you are abstracting your own
work or someone else’s,
When revising:
• Delete all extraneous words and incorporate
meaningful and powerful words.
• The idea is to be as clear and complete as possible
in the shortest possible amount of space.
• The Word Count feature of Microsoft Word can
help you keep track of how long your abstract is
and help you hit your target length.

27. 3 of social movements through a
This dissertation examines the impacts
multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak
in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically
important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social
structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so. The
time period studied includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in
black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the
emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-
poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative
analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies. Data have been
collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports.
This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are
inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or
economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically
these groups acted in response to the leverage brought to bear by the civil
rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge
independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and
injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement
infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.
Kenneth Tait Andrews, “‘Freedom is a constant struggle’: The dynamics and consequences of the
Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1984″ Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997
DAI-A 59/02, p. 620, Aug 1998

28. • Now let’s break down this abstract into its component parts to see how the author has distilled
his entire dissertation into a ~200 word abstract.
This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the
Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By
examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform
social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so.
The time period studied in this dissertation includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in
black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight
academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research
strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies.
Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports.
This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view
federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional
change, but typically these groups acted in response to movement demands and the leverage
brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge
independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling
change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in
Mississippi.
social movements, Civil Rights Movement, Mississippi, voting rights, desegregation

29. The problem of detecting
4gravitational radiation is receiving
considerable attention with the construction of new detectors in the United
States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that
would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search for and
analysis of detected signals. The characteristic formulation of GR is
implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D
asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future
null infinity is included in the evolved region, which enables the
unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact
source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in
the evolution algorithm. This code is shown to be second-order convergent
and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we have shown
that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a
galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second.
We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to
the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region
surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole
spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.
Luis Lehner, “Gravitational radiation from black hole spacetimes” Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh, 1998 DAI-B 59/06, p. 2797, Dec 1998

30. • This science abstract covers much of the same ground as the humanities one, but it asks slightly
different questions.
The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the
construction of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the
wave forms that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search and analysis of the
detected signals.
The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black
holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is
included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced
by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the
evolution algorithm.
This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In
particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a
galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the
characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code
carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole
spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.
gravitational radiation (GR), spacetimes, black holes

32. Thank you
for your attention!