How-to for Abstracts

The purpose of an abstract is to summarize the main points of the paper that you will present. In it, you need to convince readers that you have something important and valuable to add either to the topic or overall conference. Therefore, it needs to be focused and clear in the information you will share with the audience.

Sections for a good abstract:

• The Title should capture the reader’s interest by stating your topic clearly, grabbing people’s attention
• The Purpose Section is very valuable real estate, and these 1-3 sentences must inform the reader about why you have undertaken this research
• The Methods Section is your chance to summarize the basic design of your study: although excessive detail is unnecessary, you should briefly state the key techniques used
• The Results Section is likely the most important part of your abstract because the main reason people are reading your abstract is to learn about your findings. Therefore, this section should be the longest part of your abstract; maximize the amount of detail you include here
• The Conclusion should be devoted to the overall take-home message of your study. State your main finding as concisely as possible. If you have other interesting secondary findings, these can be mentioned as well. Finally, state the theoretical or practical implications of your work and/or describe how your work has advanced the field

Points to remember:

• The writing should be clear and focused
• You should state the specific problem you are trying to solve
• You must illustrate the purpose of your work
• Communicate your research succinctly while highlighting its most important facets

Good luck and we look forward to reading your abstracts.

For more guidance on how to write a good abstract, please click here.