Crafting an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Research abstracts play a crucial role in determining your research quality as it summarizes and gives an insight into what your study contains. It becomes vital for researchers and journal editors to ensure that they continue reading your study manuscript.

Most publication databases online prove ubiquitous, and it further reinforces the importance of writing compelling abstracts compared to the paper manuscripts of yesteryears. A brilliant abstract will sell your research to the countless readers out there who have an enormous amount of abstracts to read through.

The APCI notes the twelve questions they consider when picking a journal and a conference and the importance of adhering to the guidelines when it comes to your abstract. You don’t want your readers to quit reading your work as soon as they start reading it.

Tips to for Research Paper Abstract writing

Decide on what type of abstract you have to write. Every abstract has a similar objective of summarizing your study regardless of whether it proves an informative or a descriptive abstract. Most descriptive abstracts have a length of one hundred to two hundred words explaining the study’s objective, purpose, and methods. However, it avoids incorporating the results together with the conclusion.

On the other hand, informative abstracts can range from a paragraph to a page when it comes to its length. It acts as your study’s truncated version, where the results get included. Most people tend to use informative essays as they can apply to more involved research papers. Further, you will use the informative abstracts when submitting your research for conferences or journals for publication.

1. Identify the target readership. Most abstracts act as the preface of the primary research, and as such, will lead to your readers progressing to your research. Most scientists or readers of scientific journals make decisions on the relevance of the abstract to their study or interest area, so it can help to make them comprehend your key argument fast.
2. Structure and outline your abstract. Remember to give useful and relevant information, avoid abbreviations and acronyms, use well-known references, avoid including figures, tables, long quotes, and sources in the abstract.   
3. Use keywords to attract extra readers. The section of the abstract contains relevant terms used in the abstract directly. Such words prove pivotal for readers as they search for the keywords to ensure their chances of stumbling on the right document. Ensure that these keywords prove common phrases people use when searching things online, but still ideal for your write-up.
4. The abstract structure should have all the sections with the introduction, body, and conclusion. Your abstract has to contain your study’s primary motivation and purpose, the problem you intend to tackle and ways of going about it, the central claim, and the study’s scope.
5. Discuss the materials and methods (approach) that you will use in realizing the objective of your study.
6. Summarize the results of your study (especially for an informative abstract).
7. State the conclusion before proofing and editing your abstract. Here, you can always enlist your peers’ help to understand the state of your work better. Further, you can consider expert proofing services.

Conclusion

An abstract proves crucial to the reception of your research. Therefore, consider the mentioned tips in ensuring you get it right.