ACADEMIC WRITING

(PBI326)

MODULE 8
WRITING A TITLE AND ABSTRACT

BY
SRI LESTARI, MA

UNIVERSITAS ESA UNGGUL

2020

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 WRITING A TITLE AND ABSTRACT

A. Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students are expected to be able to:
a. to write attractive title
b. compose an effective abstract

B. TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

When researchers set about writing a paper, they spend the most time
on the the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Little thought goes into
the title and abstract, while keywords get even lesser attention, often being
typed out on-the-spot in a journal‘s submission system. Ironically, these three
elements—the title, abstract, and keywords—may well hold the key to
publication success (Rodrigues, 2013).
It could be said that the keywords, title, and abstract operate in a
system analogous to a chain reaction. Once the keywords have helped people
find the research paper and an effective title has successfully lassoed and
drawn in the readers‘ attention, it is up to the abstract of the research paper to
further trigger the readers‘ interest and maintain their curiosity. This
functional advantage alone serves to make an abstract an indispensable
component within the research paper format.
However, formulating the abstract of a research paper can be a tedious
task, given that abstracts need to be fairly comprehensive, without giving too
much away. This is mainly because if readers get all the details of the
research paper in the abstract itself, they might be discouraged from reading
the entire article.
The title, abstract, and keywords play a pivotal role in the
communication of research. Without them, most papers may never be read or
even found by interested readers (Rodrigues, 2013). The reasons are:
 Most electronic search engines, databases, or journal websites will use the
words found in your title and abstract, and your list of keywords to decide
whether and when to display your paper to interested readers. Thus, these 3

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 elements enable the dissemination of your research; without them, readers
would not be able to find or cite your paper.
 The title and abstract are often the only parts of a paper that are freely
available online. Hence, once readers find your paper, they will read
through the title and abstract to determine whether or not to purchase a full
copy of your paper/continue reading.
 Finally, the abstract is the first section of your paper that journal editors
and reviewers read. While busy journal editors may use the abstract to
decide whether to send a paper for peer review or reject it outright,
reviewers will form their first impression about your paper on reading it.

C. WRITING A TITLE OF A PAPER

Journal websites and search engines use the words in research paper
titles to categorize and display articles to interested readers, while readers use
the title as the first step to determining whether or not to read an article. This
is why it is important to know how to write a good title for a research paper.
Good research paper titles (typically 10–12 words long) use descriptive terms
and phrases that accurately highlight the core content of the paper (e.g., the
species studied, the literary work evaluated, or the technology discussed).
Every word in your title is important. So the key is to devise a title
that:
1) will immediately make sense to the referee
2) will easily be found by a search engine or indexing system
3) will attract the right kind of readers rather than discouraging them, and
will also catch the attention of browsers. Note ‗attraction‘ does not
mean resorting to newspaper-like headlines, but simply containing
those words that readers in your feld would expect to find
4) does not consist of a string of nouns and will be immediately
comprehensible to anyone in your general field
5) is short
6) has a definite and concise indication of what it is written in the paper
itself. It is neither unjustifiably specific nor too vague or generic

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 Typical complaints of reviewers is that the title is too generic (“A
general strategy”…): it should be more informative of the content of the
manuscript. To generate a title, think of the following questions:
a) What have I found that will attract attention?
b) What is new, different and interesting about my findings?
c) What are the 3–5 key words that highlight what makes my research
and my findings unique?
On the basis of your answers you should be able to formulate a title.
To make a title more dynamic, every word (apart from articles and
prepositions) included in the title should add significance. The following
words in italics rarely add value.
S1. A study of the factors affecting the trihyroxyindole procedure for
the analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid
S2. An investigation into some psychological aspects of English
pronunciation.
The first seven words in S1 give the reader no information. S1 and S2 might
be more dynamic and more concise if the initial redundant words were
removed.
S3. Factors affecting the trihyroxyindole procedure for the analysis of
deoxyribonucleic acid
S4. Some psychological aspects of English pronunciation
Similar words that are often redundant are: inquiry, analysis, evaluation, and
assessment.
However, words such as study and investigation may be useful to
make your research sound less conclusive. S5 sounds like the authors have
made the definitive study (i.e. the final settlement or decision) of customer
satisfaction, whereas S6 sounds less arrogant and more open.
S5. The determinants of customer satisfaction
S6. An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction
However, simply replacing the with some (S7) or removing it completely (S8)
would also make the research seem less definitive.
S7. Some determinants of customer satisfaction

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 S8. Determinants of customer satisfaction
Another occasion where words such as study and investigation may be useful
is in two-part titles. For example:
S9. Old age: A study of diversity among men and women
However, S9 might have more impact as follows:
S10. Old age: diversity among men and women
S10 could also be rewritten as a question.
S11. What factors effect diversity among men and women in old age?
But S11 still contains redundancy and is not particularly eye-catching. Better
might be:
S12. Will women always live longer than men?

Are questions in titles a good way to attract attention? The titles

below highlight that a question can be formulated using an auxiliary (e.g.
does, would, can, will) and using question words (e.g. why, when, what,
which, why, who).
1) Does the ocean-atmosphere system have more than one stable mode
of operation?
2) If homo economicus could choose his own utility function, would he
want one with a conscience?
3) Why Do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker
Than Others?
4) When do foreign-language readers look up the meaning of unfamiliar
words? The influence of task and learner variables
5) What do bosses do? The origins and functions of hierarchy in
capitalist production
6) Who would have thought it? An operation proves to be the most
effective therapy for adult-onset diabetes mellitus.
Titles with questions also work particularly well for abstracts
submitted to conferences. They are generally much more informal and
because of their question form they immediately get readers thinking about
what the answer might be. They can also be original and fun, as highlighted

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by the last title. They thus tend to stand out from other titles and are more
likely to attract attention.
A two-part title is also a good idea. For example the title from the
previous ssection:
1) When do foreign-language readers look up the meaning of unfamiliar
words? The influence of task and learner variables
2) What do bosses do? The origins and functions of hierarchy in
capitalist production
3) Who would have thought it? An operation proves to be the most
effective therapy for adult-onset diabetes mellitus.
In these cases the first part poses a question, which the second part answers.
In other cases the second part acts as an explanation for the first part:
a) Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity:
problems of using long words needlessly
b) The role of medicine: dream, mirage or nemesis
c) Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes
Given that two-part titles are much less common than other titles they
generally attract more attention, and like questions work well for abstracts
submitted to conferences.
The two parts of the titles are separated by a colon. Some journals
require a capital letter after a colon, as in the last example. Titles never end
with a period (.), but if they are questions, then there should be a
question mark at the end.
There are basically two ways to capitalize a title. The first is to
capitalize each initial letter, apart from articles (a, an, the) and prepositions
(e.g. on, by, in, of). The other is just to capitalize the first letter of the first
word, and then to have all the other words in lower case. Of course, if the
word is a proper noun, then this should have an initial capital letter too.
Where possible use the -ing form of verbs rather than abstract
nouns. This will make your title more readable as well as making it 2–3
words shorter.

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 ABSTRACT NOUNS VERBS
The Specification and the Evaluation of Specifying and Evaluating Educational
Educational Software in Primary Schools Software in Primary Schools
A Natural Language for Problem A Natural Language for Solving
Solution in Cross Cultural Problems in Cross Cultural
Communication Communication

The key words in your title are likely to be nouns. So choose these
nouns very carefully. The key words in the first title above are educational
software and primary schools. Try to choose adjectives that indicate the
unique features of your work, e.g. low cost, scalable, robust, powerful.
Adjectives such as reliable should only be used if work in your field has so
far only produced an unreliable system or unreliable results.

How to make a title shorter?

Titles are often constricted by the number of characters that can be
used (check with your journal to see how many words or characters you can
use). In some cases you can keep your title as it is but reduce it in length
simply by replacing the non-key words with shorter synonyms.
LONG SHORT LONG SHORT LONG SHORT
VERB VERB NOUN NOUN ADJECTIVE ADJECTIVE
achieve gain advantages gain accurate exact
calculate rate examination study fundamental basic
demonstrate show improvement advance important key
determine fix modification change innovative new
facilitate ensure necessary needed

The most obvious ways to make your title shorter are to:
 choose the shortest word
 remove redundant words
 use verbs rather than nouns

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 Most titles of more than about five words require prepositions. The
table below explains the typical meanings of prepositions in titles, and gives
some examples with and without prepositions.
MEANING POOR/INCORRECT GOOD ENGLISH
ENGLISH
by how something is Fast computing machines Equation of state
done equation of state calculations by fast
calculations computing machines
for for the purpose of Depression measuring An inventory for
inventory measuring depression
from the origin of Antonio Gramsci prison Selections from the prison
notebooks selections notebooks of Antonio
Gramsci
in where something Vertical flux of ocean Vertical flux of particles in
is located, particles the ocean
what something Classical theory of Crack problems in the
regards elasticity crack problems classical theory of
elasticity
of belonging to, Reality social The social construction of
regarding construction reality
Model dimension Estimating the dimension
estimation of a model

Even if you don‘t understand the exact meaning of the above titles, the
important thing to note is that the use of prepositions helps the reader to
understand how the various elements in the title are related to each other.
Also note that rewriting a title so that it contains prepositions may involve
adding a/an or the. Such cases are underlined in the table.
Do not worry if you use the same preposition more than once in the
same title. For example of is used three times in the last title in the table
above. This is perfectly acceptable and is not considered bad style in English.
Although a title is not generally a complete sentence, it does have to
be grammatically correct. This means that it must have articles where
necessary, even though this will increase the length of the title.

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 S1. Survey of importance of improving design of internal systems
S2. A survey of the importance of improving the design of internal
systems
S1 is not correct English. A general rule of English is that a countable noun
that is in the singular must be preceded by an article. In S1, survey is a
singular countable noun, so it must be preceded by either a or the. In S2, a is
the correct choice because we are not referring to a survey that the reader
already knows about. An example of where the would be necessary is in S3,
which is part of a literature review:
S3. Two surveys on x have been reported in the literature, the
survey conducted by Williams is more comprehensive than the
survey carried out by Evans,
In S3, the author is referring to specific surveys, so the is obligatory.
Going back to S1, another general grammatical feature of English is
that if you have the following sequence of words: noun1 +of+noun2, then
noun1 is preceded by the. This is because noun1 is used to specify noun2.
This means that we need the before importance and before design.
The last noun in S1 is countable but it is plural (systems) and
unspecified (we know that the systems are internal, but we do not know
which internal systems they are). In such cases, no article is required. No the
is required for uncountable nouns (i.e. lack, feedback and equipment in S4–
S6).
S4. Lack of protective immunity against reinfection with hepatitis C
virus
S5. Feedback and optimal sensitivity
S6. Vibration analysis for electronic equipment
There are some cases where the use or non-use of the changes the meaning of
the title.
S7. The factors that determine depression
S8. Factors that determine depression
S7 gives the idea that the author has made a comprehensive survey of
depression and has identified all those factors that lead to depression. This

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makes the paper sound like the final word on depression, i.e. this is the
definitive article on depression. S8 is not all-inclusive. The reader will expect
to learn about some factors. This makes the paper sound much more modest.
Sometimes the use of the does not follow the same rules as in general
English. For example, the first word in S9–S11 is a countable noun in the
singular and as such would normally require the.
S9. Effect of clinical guidelines on medical practice
S10. Influence of education and occupation on the incidence of
Alzheimer’s disease
S11. Association of exogenous estrogen and endometrial carcinoma
S12. Measurement of protein using bicinchoninic acid
Such non-use of the seems to be very common in medicine, biology and
chemistry. S9 and S10 could also be written as The effect of ... and The
influence of with no change in meaning.
The difference between a and an in a title follows normal usage. Use a
before all consonants, before eu, and before u when u has the sound as in
university and unit. Use an before a, i and o. It should also be used before e
except before eu, and before u when u has the sound as in unusual and
understanding. Use an before h only in the following cases: hour, honest,
honor, heir. Some authors use an before historical too.
To asses the quality of the title, you need to check that your title is:
o in correct English - in terms of syntax, vocabulary, spelling and
capitalization
o understandable (no strings of nouns)
o eye-catching and dynamic (through effective use of vocabulary and
even punctuation)
o sufficiently and appropriately specific
o reflects the content of your paper
o expressed in a form that is acceptable for a journal

Check the syntax and the level of understandability and check the vocabulary
and spelling. The best way to decide whether it is eye-catching and

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 sufficiently specific is to prepare several titles (including ones in two parts,
and in the form of a question) with various levels of specificity and ask
colleagues to choose their favorite.

D. WRITING EFFECTIVE ABSTRACT

The abstract should work like a marketing tool. It should help the
reader decide ―whether there is something in the body of the paper worth
reading‖ by providing a quick and accurate summary of the entire paper,
explaining why the research was conducted, what the aims were, how these
were met, and what the main findings were.
There are four main types of abstracts, all of which summarize the
highlights of your research and all of which will be judged in isolation from
the accompanying paper (if there is one). Abstracts are sometimes called
Summaries. Abstracts are found before a full article in a journal, standalone
in databases of abstracts, and in conference programs.
1) unstructured abstract. A single paragraph of between 100–250
words containing a very brief summary of each of the main sections of
your paper
2) structured abstract. The same as unstructured abstract but divided
into several short sections.
3) extended abstract. A mini paper organized in the same way as a full
paper (e.g. Introduction, Methods, Discussion …), but substantially
shorter (two to four pages). Depending on the journal, conference or
competition, the extended abstract may or may not include an abstract
– for example, it may begin directly with an introduction.
4) conference abstract. Normally a standalone abstract (sometimes up
to 500 words), designed to help conference organizers to decide
whether they would like you to make an oral presentation at their
conference. It may be of any of the three forms above.

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 The type of abstract you choose and the format to use will depend on
the journal or conference. Make sure you read their instructions to authors
before you begin writing.
Write a rough draft of the abstract before you start writing the paper
itself. This may help you to decide what to include in the paper and how to
structure it. But experienced writers always write the Abstract (and often the
Introduction too) last, i.e. when they have finished the rest of the paper. This
reflects the research process itself – the first thing you write about is what you
found, then how this can be interpreted. In any case, and as with the whole
paper, you must have a clear idea of your intended audience.
An Abstract generally answers at least the first three of the following
questions, and generally in the following order. You can use the answers to
these questions to structure your Abstract.
 Why did I carry out this project? Why am I writing this paper?
 What did I do, and how?
 What were my results? What was new compared to previous
research?
 What are the implications of my findings? What are my conclusions
and/or recommendations?
To decide what to include it may help you to go through your paper and
highlight what you consider to be the most important points in each section.

The structure of an abstract

Although the style of an abstract may differ from discipline to
discipline and from journal to journal, the structure and information provided
is quite similar. The aim is always to tell readers all they need to know to help
them decide whether to buy / read the paper. Here is an abstract from a
fictitious paper entitled Is it Time to Leave Him? Written by a PhD student,
Estrella Garcia Gonzalez from Madrid.
(1) Three red flags were identified that indicate that the time to leave him has come. These
red flags are: five burps per day, two sitting-zapping sessions per day, and fives games on
the Playstation with friends per week. (2) A large number of women have doubts about
the right moment for leaving their partner. Often women wait in hope for a change in their

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 partner‘s habits. (3) One hundred couples were analyzed, recording their daily life for six
months. Women were provided with a form to mark the moments of annoyance recorded
during the day. Burps, sitting-zapping sessions and games on the Playstation with friends
produced the highest index of annoyance. (4) The probability of eliminating these habits
was found to be significantly low when the three red flags had been operative for more
than three months. (5) Thus, these numbers provide a good indication of when the time to
leave him has come. With these red flags, women will no longer have to waste their time
waiting for the right moment.

Below is a series of instructions for writing an abstract based on Estrella‘s

structure. Again, the numbers refer to the numbers in the abstract.
1) Begin the abstract with one or two sentences saying what you did
plus one key result, i.e. begin with information that the reader does
NOT already know
2) Introduce the background by connecting in some way to what you
said in your introductory sentence. The concept of leaving him is
introduced in (1) and then referred to again in (2)
3) Use the background information (which the reader may or not
already know) to justify what you did, and outline your methodology
(and materials where appropriate)
4) Provide some more information on your results
5) Tell the reader the implications of your results

How to begin an abstract?

When you read an advertisement for a product it never begins The
objective of this advertisement is to convince you to buy … Instead advertisers
go straight to the point. Abstracts are like advertisements for your paper. You
want your abstract to stand out so that there will be a better chance someone
will notice it and read it.
If you begin your abstract with commonly used phrases (by both
native and non native English speakers) such as This paper deals with … The
aim of this paper … This article explores … We report … you are not
differentiating yourself from the others. In fact, some journals advise against
using such expressions. For example:

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 ORIGINAL VERSION REVISED VERSION

In this paper we present the design and To extend automatic translation from
development of a highly innovative software written to oral communication we developed
application //, Transpeach, which allows Transpeach. This software allows, for
mobile phone users to use their own native instance, a Japanese mobile phone user to
language when speaking to someone of talk to a Greek counterpart in Greek, likewise
another native language. The prototype the Greek‘s words are automaticallytranslated
version enables a Japanese mobile phone into Japanese.
user …

In the first sentence the author manages to combine both the

background (automatic written translation) with the new information
(automatic oral translation). The words highly innovative have been removed.
More concrete examples are given, which reflect what the prototype does.
Rather than telling your readers that what you have done is highly innovative,
it might be more effective if you demonstrate the innovation element so
clearly that readers reach this conclusion by themselves. This does not mean
you always have to be modest about your achievements.

The Tenses in an Abstract

The most commonly used tenses in abstracts are the present simple
(we show) and the past simple (we showed). The present simple to:
 describe the contents of his paper (we investigate, we show).
 describe the common opinion that he is trying to question (the
phenomenon is essentially random)
 refer to what he did during his experiments (We show that toast does
indeed have an inherent tendency)
 give his conclusions - not shown here - (Murphy’s Law appears to be
an ineluctable feature of our universe)
Even though the research has already been done (thus the
investigation is complete), the writer uses the present simple because he
wants to make his abstract sound more dynamic and his conclusions more

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convincing. However, in the paper itself he uses the past simple to describe
what he did and found.
The writers use the past simple to describe what they did / achieved
and what conclusions they reached (the authors found that ..). This is the
standard way to use tenses in abstracts. The author of the ―scientific English‖
abstract ends his abstract by using the present perfect (which have not been
faced to date). You can use the present perfect and the present perfect
continuous when you describe a situation that began in the past and is still
true now. This is typical when you are giving the context / background.
Some authors also use the present perfect (in the active or passive) to
describe what they achieved during their research.
 We have found / devised / developed a new approach to X. We have
demonstrated / proved / validated the effectiveness of this approach
by …
 A new approach to X has been devised. The effectiveness of the
approach has been demonstrated …

An abstract for a conference

An abstract for a journal has to be relevant to the specialization of
that journal. Likewise, an abstract for a conference must really fit the
conference theme. This point is absolutely essential. Occasionally in the rush
to organize the conference the editorial board may initially accept your
abstract on the basis that it sounds interesting. Then a few months later when
you send them your full version, the editors may realize that it does not
actually fit the theme. So if it doesn‘t fit, choose another conference.
Try to ensure that your abstract will not just be enticing for the
editorial board but also that it will be suitable for publishing in the conference
handbook / proceedings. Your title should be interesting but not too obscure
or too colloquial / witty.
If the conference that you plan to go to is not in its first edition, you
can look at abstracts from the previous editions to see their style and tone. In

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any case, the rules for writing the abstract itself are the same as for a journal,
though your style may be slightly more informal.
In any case it makes sense to have key words in your abstract (and
title too) because it forces you, the author, to decide what words in your paper
really are important. The key words are also the words that readers are
looking for in their initial search and then when they actually scan your
abstract. General consensus seems to be to not repeat the key words more
than three times in the abstract. This can be tedious for the reader.
Some journals require you to have a list of four or five key words
directly under your abstract. The same journals may also require that the
keywords in this list should not appear in the text of the abstract. Make sure
you have a very clear idea of the policy regarding key words of the journal or
conference before submitting your abstract.
To make a self-assessment of your Abstract, you can ask yourself
the following questions.
 Have I followed the journal‘s instructions to authors? Have I followed the
right structure (i.e. structured, unstructured) and style (we vs passive)?
 Have I covered the relevant points from those below?
o background / context
o research problem / aim - the gap I plan to fill
o methods
o results
o implications and/or conclusions
 Have I chosen my keywords carefully so that readers can locate my
Abstract?
 Whenever I have given my readers information, will it be 100% clear to
them why they are being given this information? (You know why, but they
do not.)
 Can I make my Abstract less redundant? If I tried to reduce it by 25%,
would I really lose any key content?

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  Have I used tenses correctly? present simple (established knowledge),
present perfect (past to present background information), past simple (my
contribution)

E. REFERENCES
Rodrigues, V. (2013). How to write an effective title and abstract and choose
appropriate keywords. Editage Insights (04-11-2013).
Tullu, M. S. (2019). Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being
concise, precise, and meticulous is the key. Saudi journal of
anaesthesia, 13(Suppl 1), S12.
Wallwork, A. (2011). English for Writing Research Paper. New York:
Springer

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