How to write an abstract

1
How to write an abstract

• A presentation for the Network members of
  TEMOLAYOLE

2
What is an abstract?

• A complete but concise description of your work
• Brief overview of introduction, methods
  results, discussion, conclusion
• It is supposed to sell your work
• Convice the reader / reviewer that it is
  interesting

3
Parts of an abstract

• Motivation
• Statement of Purpose
• General methodological approach
• Major results
• Conclusion

4
Motivation

• One or two sentences
• Why do we care to investigate the particular
  problem
• importance of your work
• difficulty of the area
• impact it might have

5
Purpose of study

• Examples
• The purpose of the study was ...
• The aim of this study was to ...
• This study attempted to answer the following
  questions to test the hypothesis...
• This study focused on the....

6
General methodological approach

• One or two sentences
• How did you go about solving the problem?
• Major techniques you used to find the results
• Do not explain the how but rather the what

7
Major results

• Summarized in one or two sentences
• Whats the answer?
• Do not provide details

8
Conclusion

• It should conclude with 1-2 sentences
• What are the implications of your answer ?
• These sentences should connect the findings with
  one or more of the larger ideas stated in the
  opening two sentences

9
Common problems

• too long (it will be rejected)
• too short
• too much detail
• failure to provide important information

10
General tips

• The abstract must make sense in itself
• Meet the word count limitation
• Major limitations on the results should be stated
  (use of words such as might, seem, could,
  etc.)