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Writing up Research:

The Abstract
There are two distinct types of abstracts:
A DESCRIPTIVE abstract merely identifies the areas to be covered in the report. It is an extended statement
of purpose or scope. Such an abstract is only useful for a very long report, because it demonstrates only the
paper's organization, not its content.
An INFORMATIVE abstract summarizes the entire report and gives the reader an overview of the facts that
will be laid out in detail in the paper itself. It is rarely longer than one page and should never exceed more
than 10% of the length of the entire report; otherwise it defeats its own purpose.

ABSTRACTS AND INTRODUCTIONS COMPARED

At first glance, it might seem that the introduction and the abstract are very similar because they both pre-
sent the research problem and objectives as well as briefly reviewing methodology, main findings and main
conclusions. However, there are important differences between the two:

Introduction
•Should be short, but does not have a word limit.
•Main purpose is to introduce the research by presenting its context or background. Introductions usually go
from general to specific, introducing the research problem and how it will be investigated).

Abstract
•Has a maximum word limit;
•Is a summary of the whole research;
•Main purpose is to summarize the research (particularly the objective and the main finding/conclusion),
NOT to introduce the research area.

I. PURPOSE
➡ What is the author's reason for writing?
➡ What is the author's main idea?

II. SCOPE
➡ What is the author's focus in this piece?
➡ Where does the author concentrate his/her attention?

III. METHOD
➡ What kinds of evidence does the author provide?
➡ How does the author try to convince the reader of the validity of his/her main idea?

IV. RESULTS
➡ What are the consequences of the problem or issue that the author is discussing?

V. RECOMMENDATIONS
➡ What solutions does the author present to the reader to resolve the problem of issue in the piece?
➡ Does the author recommend action or change in his/her piece?

VI. CONCLUSIONS
➡ Does the author describe a 'cause and effect' relationship or explain the origins of this issue or problem?
➡ What conclusions does the author draw from his/her study of the issue or problem?

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An abstract should briefly:

• Re-establish the topic of the research.
• Give the research problem and/or main objective of the research (this usually comes first).
• Indicate the methodology used.
• Present the main findings.
• Present the main conclusions
It is essential that your abstract includes all the keywords of your research, as it will enabled on databases
which other researchers will search. Obviously if you only have two hundred words, you can only cover
each of these areas briefly. The emphasis is generally on the main findings and main conclusions since these
areas are of most interest to readers.

These are the basic components of an abstract in any discipline:

1) Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem? What practical, scientific, theoretical
or artistic gap is your research filling?
2) Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels,
completed a series of 5 oil paintings, interviewed 17 students)
3) Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above procedure, what did you learn/invent/
create?
4) Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your findings, especially for the problem/
gap identified in step 1?
However, it's important to note that the weight accorded to the different components can vary by discipline.
COMMON PROBLEMS
Too long.
If your abstract is too long, it may be rejected - abstracts are entered on databases, and those is usually a
specified maximum number of words. Abstracts are often too long because people forget to count their
words (remember that you can use your word processing program to do this) and make their abstracts too
detailed (see below).
Too much detail.
Abstracts that are too long often have unnecessary details. The abstract is not the place for detailed explana-
tions of methodology or for details about the context of your research problem because you simply do not
have the space to present anything but the main points of your research.
Too short.
Shorter is not necessarily better. If your word limit is 200 but you only write 95 words, you probably have
not written in sufficient detail. You should review your abstract and see where you could usefully give more
explanation - remember that in many cases readers decide whether to read the rest of your research from
looking at the abstract. Many writers do not give sufficient information about their findings
Failure to include important information. You need to be careful to cover the points listed above. Often peo-
ple do not cover all of them because they spend too long explaining, for example, the methodology and then
do not have enough space to present their conclusion. models, try to find abstracts of research that is similar
to your research.

In the words of Craig W. Allin, "abstracts are an exercise in writing with precision and efficiency."

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But how do we begin?

What would be an effective way to begin an abstract? To help you on your way let us consider some intro-
ductory sentences.
First, let us see some opening sentences that DO NOT offer real information:
This paper reports on a method for...
The paper explores the notions of...
The purpose of our research is to consider how...
The objective of this study is to determine...
Thus, it is clear that you should avoid writing a statement of scope.
On the other hand, the sentences below represent good examples of introductory statements, for they go di-
rectly into the subject. They give something to the reader. Let us see how it works:
➡ The development process of hypermedia and web systems poses very specific problems that do not ap-
pear in other software applications, such as…
➡ Given a large set of data, a common data mining problem is to extract the frequent patterns occurring in
this set.
➡ According to many recent studies the effect of learning style on academic performance has been found to
be significant and mismatch between teaching and learning styles causes learning failure and frustration.

Do’s and don’ts of abstract writing

• Do write a single paragraph.
• Do meet the specific word length.
• Do answer the questions: what, why, and how.
• Do use familiar language to the reader.
• Do use a few keywords.
• Do write short sentences.
• Do improve transitions between the sentences.
• Do use active voice.
• Do use third person singular.
• Do begin with a clear introductory statement written in the present tense.
• Do use past tense in the main body.
• Do write a concluding statement in the present tense: just tells what the results mean (e.g.
"These results suggest...").
• Do fix grammar.
• Do use headings, subheadings and tables as a guide for writing.
• Do print and reread the abstract.

• Don't cite the sections of the paper.

• Don’t include references to the literature and to figures and tables.
• Don’t use abbreviations.
• Don’t add new information.
• Don't add superfluous information.
• Don’t add opinions.
• Don’t repeat information.
• Don’t repeat the article title.

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Sample Format

Sample Format of Heading and Body of an Abstract

Title of Project/Presentation*
Joe M. Smith**
Mentor: Mary J. Wilson***

Abstracts must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge the

nature and significance of the topic, the adequacy of the investigative
strategy, the nature of the results, and the conclusions. The abstract
should summarize the substantive results of the work and not merely list
topics to be discussed. An abstract is an outline/brief summary of your
paper and your whole project. It should have an intro, body and conclu-
sion. It is a well-developed paragraph, should be exact in wording, and
must be understandable to a wide audience. Abstracts should be no
more than 250 words, formatted in Microsoft Word, and single-spaced,
using size 12 Times New Roman font. It highlights major points of the
content and answers why your work is important, what was your pur-
pose, how you went about your project, what you learned, and what you
concluded.

* If your title includes scientific notation, Greek letters, bold, italics, or

other special characters/symbols, make sure they appear correctly here
in Microsoft Word.

** Include additional undergraduate co-authors, whether they are pre-

senting or not presenting, if applicable

*** Include additional faculty mentors, if applicable

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SOCIAL SCIENCES

Stereotype Threat
Stephanie Domzalski
Mentor: Dr. Geoffrey Iverson

The stereotype threat theory (Steele 1992, 1997) examines the under-
performance of women in mathematical domains and minorities in aca-
demic domains and attempts to explain these trends as being due to si-
tuational anxiety. Research indicates that the performance differential
between genders and ethnicities can be best understood in terms of ste-
reotype threat activation rather than biological determinants. The anxie-
ty a stereotyped individual feels when confronted with an academic task
is compounded by a societal expectation of failure. However, not much
research currently exists on the mediating effects of personal belief in
the stereotype. The goal of this study was to examine whether anxiety
was correlated with a stronger belief in the stereotype among college-
aged participants. Individuals from stigmatized groups demonstrated a
significantly greater likelihood to experience higher anxiety levels if they
believed the negative stereotype and that higher anxiety level correlated
with lower test scores. These results provide general support for Steele’s
stereotype threat hypothesis.

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