Informative Abstracts

· communicate specific information from the report, article, or paper.

· include the purpose, methods, and scope of the report, article, or paper.

· provide the report, article, or results of the paper, and conclusions.

· are short - from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the original work being abstracted. Usually informative abstracts are 10% or less of the length of the original piece (from 150 to a maximum of 200 words).

· allow readers to decide whether they want to read the report, article, or paper.

Proceed in the following way:

- Summarize your paper. The summary should be thorough, but brief.

- Start by making a list of all the information the reader should know just by reading the abstract.

- Tell why someone should care about your research. What you were trying to find and why it matters is a good place to start. What hole is your research filling?

- Explain the nature of the work performed, especially if it was a scientific experiment. The details of your apparatus, materials, or experiment may go in your main paper, but explain enough of the basics that someone would need to know to understand what you have done.

- Outline any hypotheses or theories advanced in the paper.

- Leave out any tables, complicated explanations, etc. The reader can find those in the paper.

- Include the findings, results, or conclusions of your paper. This is not a murder mystery, so there is no need to reserve the conclusions for the end.

- What are the larger implications of your findings?

- Proofread your abstract and have somebody else proofread it for you. Does it make sense? Is everything clearly stated? Is it thorough but concise? Is it in an appropriate style?