September 8, 2020

Writing an Abstract for a Research Paper

By content1

Research abstracts play a vital role when it comes to succinctly and quickly explaining your study to researchers and journal editors, especially in provoking them to study the research piece further. Its importance even grows further with how ambiguous virtual publication databases are. So a student has to write an abstract that is compelling enough, unlike previous eras of paper manuscripts.

So what is the purpose of an abstract? Abstracts primarily exist to showcase your work by executively summarizing your entire research work. It can get equated to a resume where you have to impress readers within a limited period. Having a properly structured abstract paves the way for invitations to conferences and getting considered for journal publications.

Guidelines for Writing a Top Abstract

  • Settle on the abstract type you want to write before writing the abstract. Every abstract has a similar objective, which is to provide your study summary. However, two primary abstract styles exist, and these are informative and descriptive abstracts.
  • Descriptive abstract. It always has a length of hundred to two hundred words, and it dwells in explaining the objective, purpose, and methods used in the paper though it omits the conclusion and results.
  • Informative abstracts. They consist of a paragraph to whole a page when it comes to their length. It is a truncated research version of your work complete with results.The informative abstract is more common and widely used in submitting research work in conferences and journal publications, mainly because they apply to more technical and lengthier research work.
  • Research the requirements about the abstract guidelines. As with any other research article, you need to follow the laid down rules for writing your abstract. It mainly reflects within the Author’s Guide section of a targeted website for a publishing journal. Every publisher is different, and therefore their rules might differ on the structure and formatting style of the abstract.
  • You need to identify the audience you are targeting. Knowing your audience even helps you to properly structure your abstract as its sole purpose is to make the reader study the whole research text.It assists journals in deciding whether the submitted research piece is relevant for the journal besides helping your audience comprehend your primary argument quickly.
  • Give useful and relevant information in the abstract and nothing else. Your abstract must comprehensively explain your research or paper in a few words. Try to avoid including ambiguous phrases or references that can confuse or mislead your readership on the study objectives and content of your research. Avoid things like acronyms, abbreviations, figures, tables, long quotes, and sources, among others.
  • Employ the use of keywords to increase the appeal of your research abstract and general research. The keyword segment underneath the abstract is vital in showcasing what your abstract entails. Ensure that the keywords you use are unique but equally typical in search engine searches and with high relevance to your research work.

Each abstract section should be compact though each always has a sentence or two, each with seamless continuity.  Ensure that you identify your motivation and purpose, explain what problem the research addresses, discuss the approach on materials and methods, summarize the results generated in your research, and state your research conclusion.  

Conclusion

Abstracts are vital in showcasing your research work, and therefore revising and editing it before the submission is a must. You can also order custom papers at mypaperwriter.com, and it will be free from spelling and grammatical errors, and will have an excellent format.