In this article, I will show you how to write a good abstract that will scale up your work. An abstract is a summary of the entire research work a researcher carried out. Your abstract is the selling point of your work. Depending on the institution or journal you want to publish with, it is usually between 200-300 words. This implies that the researcher must find every possible way to summarize his/her work, irrespective of how voluminous it may be to fit into the number of words required.
In order to write a good abstract, ensure that every part of the work is represented. Let us use a five chapter format of writing a research for example. In a research work that has five chapter, below are the chapters and the information you will provide in the abstract;
Chapter One: Introduction. Here, ensure you state your objectives, scope, research questions and hypothesis. Although in more professional writings, all you need to do is state how many research questions and hypothesis used. You may not necessarily need to list all the research questions and hypothesis one by one.
Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature. Here, you need to list some concepts and theories used to form the framework for your study. Also, you may wish to state how many literature reviewed here (although it is not compulsory)
Chapter Three: Methods or Methodology. What method did you use for your study? This is where you will state them. From the abstract, your readers should know the instrument for data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability, your population and sample used for the study.
Chapter Four: Data Analysis. Here, you briefly discuss the outcome of the data analysis you carried out. Most professional writings omit this phase there by making the abstract contain for major components
Chapter Five: Discussion of Finding, Conclusions and Recommendation. Here, you need to clearly tell your readers some of the findings you made in your work, your conclusion and then make recommendations for further study and work.
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Why you need to write a good abstract
It is the summary of your work: Your abstract is the summary of your work. Having written a very detailed and in-depth research, project proposal etc, you should be able to summarize it for the reader to know what your work is all about. Hence, your ability to correctly summarize your work will help you a great deal.
It gives your work more chances of been chosen: There are several journal where if you want to publish your work, you will be required to send your abstract. With this, it becomes obvious that several authors and researchers would send in their abstracts but may not qualify or chosen. This is where the need to write a good abstract comes to play. You must ensure you write a good abstract so as to increase your chances of been chosen and your work published on the journal
It informs readers about the general ideology of your work: Your abstract will most definitely be what any reader will want to read first before delving into the entire work. This therefore means that you must write a very good and detailed yet concise abstract that will boost the interest of your readers. When your abstract is poorly written, many readers will most likely not go ahead to read the entire work.
It could be used for empirical studies: Have you ever heard of empirical studies before? I guess you have. In your review of related literature, it is important to check for what others have done so that you can cite them and use their work as framework and building block for yours. Hence, a correctly written abstract will contain 75% of your work. Hence, other authors can easily extract it and use it for their empirical review.
Important Things to Know in order to Write a Good Abstract
It is written at the end of your work: As opposed to what we were taught while writing our undergraduate project, abstracts are written at the end of the entire work. At that time, we were asked to submit three topics we were interested in with an abstract for each of them. There is no way an abstract will be written at the beginning of the work despite the fact that in your work, your abstract appears before your chapter one. Also, many journals will request that you forward your abstract first before your work will be approved for publishing. This is because it is assumed that the entire work has already been written before you indicate interest in publishing on a journal. Hence, remember that abstract is a summary of your entire work. Therefore, you cannot summarize at the beginning. This is why the abstract is the last thing written in your work.
Format for writing abstracts differs: At the moment, there is no universally accepted way of writing and formatting your abstract. This is because different institutions and journals have different ways in which they want their things to be done. Hence, you must check what the institution or journal wants. For example, some will choose a single line spacing on font size 12 while others may choose double line spacing. Hence, if you fail to properly format your abstract as required, it will not scale.
Abstract appears on a separate page: You do not write a good abstract at the middle of a page or combine it with any other part for the research work. Your abstract, no matter how scanty it appears must be on a separate page. Although, this is strictly for research and project works. For journals, there are some that request that the abstract should be at the top of the page while other things may follow. This is for want of space.
Abstracts are written in present or past tense: Remember that you abstract is the summary of your entire work.it comes when the work has been completed and your conclusions made. Hence, you do not write in future tense. Ensure that your tenses are in the past or present. This is what shows that the work has been completed.
Keywords are important but not compulsory: Some journal request you add keywords at the end of your abstract. This is to enhance searchability. The keyword you include most be relevant words or phrases in your work. It will help optimize it more to be easily seen. To choose the keywords accurately, look for words in your work that correctly describes your writing. The keywords are italicized.
It does not contain any form of citation: Abstract is a summary of what you have done, not what others have done. Hence, there is no need for any citation at all. Any abstract with citation is totally wrong. This is because all the information provided in your work are yours, which were gotten during the course of the research. Therefore, ensure you do not make such error.
There is no indentation in abstract: Most times, the only part of the abstract that has indentation is the keyword. Aside the keyword section, no other part of the abstract is indented for any reason.
Do not write in first person singular: Although you are the one that carried out the research, ensure you do not use the word “I”. It is totally not allowed. To avoid confusion, you can use “the researcher”. Although, this is not strictly for the abstract, it applies to every part of the work.
Types of Abstract Formatting
There are two types of abstract formatting which are Paragraph and structured
In the paragraph formatting, the entire abstract appears in one paragraph or at most two. In the structured formatting, every section of the abstract has its own special paragraph. Hence, in the structured formatting, you could have as much as five or six sections. To explain the types of Abstract in a more clear term, let us use the example of the abstract I used of my Professional Diploma in Education.
Abstract
The study investigated comparative analysis of male and female student’s achievement scores in computer studies multiple choice test items using computer-based test (CBT) and pen paper test (PPT). Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The review of related literature in the study was organized under conceptual framework, theoretical framework and review of empirical studies. The research design used for the study was comparative survey research design. The population of the study comprised of one hundred and seventy three (173) senior secondary school students of Jesus Children School, with a sample size of 66 S2 student. The SS2 student were grouped into classes A and B. Class A comprised of 29 students and was used as the experimental group who wrote with PPT, while class B comprised of 37 student and was used as control group who wrote with CBT. A 50-item 2024 standardized West African Examination Council (WAEC) computer studies multiple Choice Test Questions (MCTQs) was the research instruments used for the collection of data for the study. The instrument was not validated and tested for reliability because it is a standardized instrument, hence the validity and reliability has already been carried out. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the data for hypotheses were analysed using t-test and tested at 0.05 level of significance with the aid of SPSS computer package (version 20). The results showed that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students in computer studies multiple-choice questions (MCTQs) across testing modes (CBT and PPT). It was recommended among others that educational institutions and testing bodies should ensure equitable administration of assessments in both paper and pencil test (PPT) and computer-based test (CBT) formats. Efforts should be made to provide students with equal opportunities to perform well regardless of the testing medium.
Keyword: PPT, CBT, Pen and Paper Test, Computer Based Test, Academic Achievement etc.
The above example is for the paragraph formatting of the abstract. For the structured formatting of the abstract, the example below is relevant.
Abstract
Introduction: The study investigated comparative analysis of male and female student’s achievement scores in computer studies multiple choice test items using computer-based test (CBT) and pen paper test (PPT). Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study.
Literature Review: The review of related literature in the study was organized under conceptual framework, theoretical framework and review of empirical studies.
Method: The research design used for the study was comparative survey research design. The population of the study comprised of one hundred and seventy three (173) senior secondary school students of Jesus Children School, with a sample size of 66 S2 student. The SS2 student were grouped into classes A and B. Class A comprised of 29 students and was used as the experimental group who wrote with PPT, while class B comprised of 37 student and was used as control group who wrote with CBT. A 50-item 2024 standardized West African Examination Council (WAEC) computer studies multiple Choice Test Questions (MCTQs) was the research instruments used for the collection of data for the study. The instrument was not validated and tested for reliability because it is a standardized instrument, hence the validity and reliability has already been carried out. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the data for hypotheses were analysed using t-test and tested at 0.05 level of significance with the aid of SPSS computer package (version 20).
Results: The results showed that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students in computer studies multiple-choice questions (MCTQs) across testing modes (CBT and PPT).
Recommendation: It was recommended among others that educational institutions and testing bodies should ensure equitable administration of assessments in both paper and pencil test (PPT) and computer-based test (CBT) formats. Efforts should be made to provide students with equal opportunities to perform well regardless of the testing medium.
Keyword: PPT, CBT, Pen and Paper Test, Computer Based Test, Academic Achievement etc.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that there is no universal way of writing an abstract. This format is strictly for the institution where I did my Professional Diploma in Education. The format used in your institution or the journal you are writing for may differ from what we have above. But the above example provides a guideline for what is expected.
