Advanced Technical Writing

1
Advanced Technical Writing

• Lecture 3
• Abstract Writing
• 22 / 6/ 2008

2
Abstracts

• Abstract summarized and highlight the major
  points of a longer piece of writing.
• Abstract are written for many formal reports,
  journal articles, and most dissertations.

3
Abstract primary purpose

• To enable readers to decide whether to read
  the work in full.
• They enable researches to review a great
  deal of literature in a short time.

4
Abstract for reports and articles

• Abstract must accurately but concisely
  describe the original work so that
  researchers in the field will not miss valuable
  information.
• Abstract should contain no information not
  discussed in the original.

5
When are abstracts used?

• Ordinarily part of a research article in a
  journal
• For chapters in a book, especially if each
  chapter has a different author
• Library reference tools, such as Biological
  Abstracts
• For presentations at scientific meetings (often
  the "published abstract" is the only written
  record of such a presentation)
• Dissertations, some papers in the sciences and
  social sciences require abstracts
•  

6
Abstracts

• An abstract is a short informative or descriptive
  summary of a longer report.
• It is written after the report is completed,
  although it is intended to be read first.
• In a technical report, the abstract appears on a
  separate page after the table of contents and
  list of illustrations

7
Abstract Classification

• Descriptive
• Informative

8
Descriptive Abstract

• Tell readers what information the report,
  article, or paper contains
• Include the purpose, methods, and scope of the
  report, article, or paper
• Do not provide results, conclusions, or
  recommendations.
• Are always very short, usually under 100 words.
• Introduce the subject to readers, who must then
  read the report, article, or paper to find out
  the author's results, conclusions, or
  recommendations

9
Example Of Descriptive Abstract

• Purpose This report describes the practices
  and selected foreign countries for
  scope providing engineering expertise on
  shift in nuclear power plants. The report
  discusses the extent to which engineering
  expertise is made available and the
  alternative models of providing such expertise.
  The implications of foreign practices for
  U.S. consideration are discussed, with
  particular reference to the shift

10
Continue Example

• technical advisor position and to a
  proposed shift engineer position. The Methods
  relevant information for this study came
  used from the open literature, interviews
  with utility staff and officials, and
  governmental and nuclear utility reports.

11
Informative Abstracts

• Communicate specific information from the report,
  article, or paper.
• Include the purpose, methods, and scope of the
  report, article, or paper.
• Provide the report, article, or paper's results,
  conclusions, and recommendations.
• Are short -- from a paragraph to a page or two,
  depending upon the length of the original work
  being abstracted. Usually informative abstracts
  are 10 or less of the length of the original
  piece.
• Allow readers to decide whether they want to read
  the report, article, or paper.

12
Example of Informative Abstract

• Purpose This report describes the practices
  and selected foreign countries for
  scope providing engineering expertise on
  shift in nuclear power plants. The report
  discusses the extent to which engineering
  expertise is made available and the
  alternative models of providing such
  expertise. The implications of foreign
  practices for U.S. consideration are discussed,
  with particular reference to t he shift
• technical advisor position and to a

13
Continue Example

• proposed shift engineer position. The
  Methods relevant information for this study came
  used from the open literature, interviews
  with utility staff and officials, and
  governmental and nuclear utility reports.
• The countries used two approaches to
• Finding provide engineering expertise on
  shift(1) employing a graduate engineer in a
  line management operations position and (2)
  creating a specific engineering position to
  provide expertise to the operations staff. The
  comparison of these two models did not

14
Continue Example

• General indicate that one system inherently
  functions Conclusion more effectively than does
  the other for safe operations. However, the
  alternative models are likely to affect crew
  relationships and performance labor supply,
  recruitment, and retention and system
  implementation. Of Recomme- the two
  systems, the nonsupervisory
  dation engineering position seems more
  advantageous within the context of current
  recruitment and career-path practices.

15
Where to find examples of abstracts

• The best source of example abstracts is journal
  articles. Go to the library and look at
  engineering journals, or look at electronic
  journals on the web.
• Read the abstract read the article. Pick the
  best ones, the examples where the abstract makes
  the article easier to read, and figure out how
  they do it.
• Not everyone writes good abstracts, even in
  refereed journals, but the more abstracts you
  read, the easier it is to spot the good ones.

16
Which Type Should you Write?

• The answer depends on the organization or
  publication for which you are writing.
• Aim at the needs of the principal readers of
  your document.

17
Length of Abstracts

• A long abstract defeats the purpose of an
  abstract. For this reason abstracts usually no
  longer than 150 to 250 words.
• Descriptive abstracts may be considerably
  shorter, of course.

18
Abstract Should Includes

• The subject of the study
• The scope of the study
• The purpose of the study
• The methods used
• The results obtained (informative abstract only)
• The Recommendations made, if any (informative
  abstract only)

19
Abstract Should not Include

• The background of study
• A detailed discussion or explanation of the
  methods used
• Administrative details about how the study was
  undertaken, who funded it, who worked on it.
• Figures, tables, charts, maps, and bibliographic
  references
• Any information that does not appear in the
  original.

20
COMMON PROBLEMS

• Too long. If your abstract is too long, it may be
  rejected. Abstracts are often too long because
  people forget to count their words
• Too much detail. Abstracts that are too long
  often have unnecessary details. The abstract is
  not the place for detailed explanations of
  methodology or for details about the context of
  your research problem
• 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.
• Failure to include important information. You
  need to be careful to cover the points listed
  above.

21
Are You Ready For Your 2nd Assignment ?

• Write Abstract for your Formal
  Report
• Due next Tuesday at class time
• Good Luck

22
Quiz 1

• How many Type of abstract are there, name them
  and what are the different between them ?