Research writing: Writing an abstract

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Research writingWriting an abstract

• presented by
• Dr Alan Jones
• Department of Linguistics
• April 30th, 2009

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ABSTRACTS

• The abstract is a genre central to disciplinary
  knowledge-making and academic writing for, after
  the title, it is generally the readers first
  encounter with a text and often the point where
  they decide whether to look further at the
  accompanying paper, or to ignore it.
• this heavily rhetorical function
• means that it is much more than
• just a synopsis of the full article.

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Generalised set of components

• An abstract usually (often) provides the reader
  with the
• following information
• purpose
• What is the author's reason for writing/main
  idea?
• focus
• What is the author's focus in this piece?
• method
• How did the author research the topic? What
  evidence is provided?
• results
• What are the authors main findings, or
  conclusions.
• recommendations
• What solutions does the author present to resolve
  the problems at issue?
• conclusions
• What conclusions does the author draw from the
  study?

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A simpler schema

• What? What was the aim of the research?
• Why? Why was the research carried out?
• How? How was the research carried out?
• What? What did you discover?

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A good example?

• Understanding the intentions of others while
  watching their actions is a fundamental building
  block of social behavior. The neural and
  functional mechanisms underlying this ability are
  still poorly understood. To investigate these
  mechanisms we used functional magnetic resonance
  imaging. Twenty-three subjects watched three
  kinds of stimuli grasping hand actions without a
  context, context only (scenes containing
  objects), and grasping hand actions performed in
  two different contexts. In the latter condition
  the context suggested the intention associated
  with the grasping action (either drinking or
  cleaning). Actions embedded in contexts, compared
  with the other two conditions, yielded a
  significant signal increase in the posterior part
  of the inferior frontal gyrus and the adjacent
  sector of the ventral premotor cortex where hand
  actions are represented. Thus, premotor mirror
  neuron areasareas active during the execution
  and the observation of an actionpreviously
  thought to be involved only in action recognition
  are actually also involved in understanding the
  intentions of others. To ascribe an intention is
  to infer a forthcoming new goal, and this is an
  operation that the motor system does
  automatically.

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A good example? Why? Why not?

• Nanoparticle Polymer Composites Where Two Small
  Worlds Meet
• Anna C Balazs, Todd Emrick, Thomas P. Russell
• The mixing of polymers and nanoparticles is
  opening pathways for engineering flexible
  composites that exhibit advantageous electrical,
  optical, or mechanical properties. Recent
  advances reveal routes to exploit both enthalpic
  and entropic interactions so as to direct the
  spatial distribution of nanoparticles and thereby
  control the macrosopic performance of the
  material. For example, by tailoring the particle
  coating and size, researchers have created
  self-healing materials for improved
  sustainability, and self-corralling rods for
  photovoltaic applications. A challenge for future
  studies is to create hierarchically structured
  composites in which each sublayer contributes a
  distinct function to yield a mechanically
  integrated, multifunctional material.
• Science Vol 314, 17 November 2006.

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No substitute for doing your own research!

• It is up to you to find out what kinds of
  abstracts are successful i.e. get accepted
  
• a) for a particular conference
• b) for publication in a particular journal
• c) for particular types of papers (reviews,
  research reports, etc., etc.)
• c) for dissertations or theses in your own
  field.
• Identify typical sections of the abstract
  (where each sentence may be a section.)
• These can also be thought of as rhetorical
  moves.

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What we can learn from studying abstracts(based
on Murray, 2005 57)

• o    how to write uncontentious openerso    how
  to link what is already known/unknown
• to your own worko    how to make a case for
  the value, or
• significance, of your worko    how much to
  write about your methodologyo    how much detail
  to give of your resultso    how to formulate
  your conclusion(s)

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The case for structured abstracts

• Structured abstracts with distinct, labeled
  sections (e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results,
  Discussion) are designed for rapid redaing and
  comprehension
• They were developed in the late 1980s and early
  1990s to assist health professionals in selecting
  clinically relevant and methodologically valid
  journal articles.
• They guide authors in summarizing the content of
  their manuscripts precisely
• They facilitate the peer-review process for
  manuscripts submitted for publication, and they
  enhance computerized literature searches.

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Structured abstract example

• Risk factors and mortality in patients with
  nosocomial staphylococcus aureus
  bacteremia.Wang FD, Chen YY, Chen TL, Liu
  CY.BACKGROUND Infections due to
  methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus have
  become increasingly common in hospitals
  worldwide. S aureus continues to be a cause of
  nosocomial bacteremia. METHODS We analyzed the
  clinical significance (mortality) of MRSA and
  methicillin-susceptible S aureus bacteremia in a
  retrospective cohort study in a 2900-bed tertiary
  referral medical center. Survival and logistic
  regression analyses were used to determine the
  risk factors and prognostic factors of mortality.
  RESULTS During the 15-year period, 1148 patients
  were diagnosed with nosocomial S aureus
  bacteremia. After controlling potential risk
  factors for MRSA bacteremia on logistic
  regression analysis, service, admission days
  prior to bacteremia, age, mechanical ventilator,
  and central venous catheter (CVC) were
  independent risk factors for MRSA. The crude
  mortality rate of S aureus bacteremia was 44.1.
  The difference between the mortality rates of
  MRSA (49.8) and MSSA bacteremia (27.6) was
  22.2 (P lt .001). Upon logistic regression
  analysis, the mortality with MRSA bacteremia was
  revealed to be 1.78 times higher than MSSA (P lt
  .001). The other predicted prognostic factors
  included age, neoplasms, duration of hospital
  stay after bacteremia, presence of mechanical
  ventilator, and use of CVC. CONCLUSIONS
  Resistance to methicillin was an important
  independent prognostic factor forpatients with S
  aureus bacteremia. Am J Infect Control. 2008
  Mar36(2)118-22. PMID 18313513 PubMed -
  indexed for MEDLINE

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The HRM project and managerialism. Or why some
discourses are more equal than others.Frank
Mueller and Chris Carter.

• Abstract
• Purpose This paper aims to present a detailed
  examination of the relationship and debate
  between realist understandings of HRM, on the one
  hand, and discourse-based notions of HRM, on the
  other. The objective is to provide a basis for a
  possible debate between these, seemingly
  contradictory, perspectives.
• Design/methodology/approach The paper argues
  that these perspectives can be integrated if one
  adopts a perspective that overcomes this dualism
  by thinking of HRM as a project where speech
  acts and non-linguistic forms of action are seen
  as interdependent. The paper uses interview
  extracts in order to illustrate how the HRM
  Project gets constituted but also resisted in the
  context of a post-privatisation electricity
  company.
• Findings This paper is predicated on the notion
  that the discourse of HRM is closely intertwined
  with the shift in power relations between
  employers, managers, employees and trade unions
  from the early 1980s onwards. In order to capture
  the broader context of the discourse it is
  suggested that the notion of an HRM Project
  includes not only language but also practices,
  boundary-spanning linkages, and external agents
  such as regulators and financial institutions.
• Originality/value Builds on the notion of
  discourse as a strategic resource.
• Journal of Organizational Change Management Vol.
  18 No. 4, 2005.

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Two types of abstracts

• informative abstracts provide detail about the
  substance of a piece of writing because readers
  will sometimes rely on the abstract alone for
  information. Informative abstracts typically
  follow this format
• Identifying information (bibliographic citation,
  etc.) Concise statement of main point, with
  initial problem or other background Methodology
  (for experimental work) and key findings Major
  conclusions
• Informative abstracts usually appear in indexes
  like Dissertation Abstracts International
• Descriptive abstracts simply outline the topic(s)
  covered so the reader can decide whether to read
  the entire document. Unlike reading an
  informative abstract, reading a descriptive
  abstract cannot substitute for reading the
  document as it does not capture the content of
  the piece.
• Most writers nowadays provide informative
  abstracts of their work.

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Abstracts as textual summariesnominalisation

• Nominalisation means that
• a) events (Actions, Processes) are represented
  as entities (Things) i.e.,
• b) verbs are changed into nouns.
• Example
• We injected the NIRF probe carrier
  intravenously.
• Intravenous injection of the NIRF probe carrier

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Nominalisation density

• it is in scientific writing that grammatical
  metaphor is most consistently exploited It
  reaches its most concentrated state in scientific
  abstracts, because it enables the meanings to be
  densely packed
• Endocrine testings confirmed clinical anterior
  hypopituarism. Post-traumatic hypopituarism may
  follow injury to the hypothalamus, the pituitary
  stalk or the pituary itself. The normal thyroid
  stimulating hormone response to thyrotropin
  releasing hormone is in favour of a
  hypothalamic lesion.
• (Lim eta al., 1990)

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Some referencesCooley, Linda, and Jo Lewkowicz.
2003. Dissertation Writing in Practice Turning
ideas into text. Hong Kong University
Press.Murray, Rowena. (2005). Writing for
Academic Journals. Maidenhead Open University
Press. Swales, John, and Christine B. Feak.
2004. Academic Writing for Graduate Students
Essential tasks and skills. 2nd Edition.
University of Michigan Press.Swales, John, and
Christine B. Feak. 2000. English in Today's
Research World A Writing Guide. University of
Michigan Press. Weissberg, R., and S. Buker
1990. Writing Up Research. Prentice Hall.