Abstracts accompany texts of different styles and genres: books, research papers, manuscripts, publications, and, first of all, research papers. Abstracts (or annotations) serve readers, editors, compilers, reviewers and the authors themselves well, as they allow to get an idea of the upcoming reading, to help in choosing, classifying and not losing the research paper among others on similar topics. The main purpose of the abstract is to convey the topic and the main idea of the research paper, its most important theses, and its topicality.
The research paper abstract has certain functions that you need to know before we start elaborating on how to write it:
- all the information is in the paper, you need to describe it briefly;
- it indicates whether it is necessary to refer to the main text, or a reader should keep looking for a relevant material;
- it describes the problem solved in the research paper, or the task, the goals that the author has set for himself, and the results of the research that has been conducted. In short, everything that can be relevant throughout the text, and what the reader wants to know, but in an extremely brief format.
The main task of the abstract, besides stating the academic relevance of the researched issue, is to intrigue the audience, make it interested. Feel free to read step-by-step guildelines on how to write a concise and impressive research paper abstract:
Learn from the Best and the Brightest
Writing an abstract dont forget about the intriguing part. Don’t just state the result, make your readers interested in digging deeper than your short description. Read the abstracts at the specific academic resources such as JSTORE and similar, choose 10-15 which you like the most and analyze them. Try to understand which features exactly attracted you. Once you understand it — use them as a guidance for your own writing. It is normal practice to use someone else’s work as an example.
Use Trigger Introduction Phrases
Phrases recommended for writing an abstract to a scientific research paper:
- This research paper discusses the problem…
- The idea of the research paper is…
- It is traced that…
- The research paper touches on the topic/on the themes…
- A comparison is given…
- The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the study…
- The research paper is devoted to the phenomenon…
- The research paper reveals the problems…
- Particular attention is paid to…
- The research paper analyzes…
- The author comes to the conclusion that…
- The author focuses on…
- Characteristic features are singled out and described…
- The research paper clarifies the features…
- Based on the study… established…
- The research paper is devoted to a thorough analysis of…
- Based on the analysis of… it is established that…
- This problem has been not fully studied and requires further research.
- The research paper summarizes the new material on the topic under study…
- The author suggested…
- The work is of an interdisciplinary nature, written at the junction…
- Such a view will be of interest to specialists in the field of…
- The research paper deals with…
- Considerable attention is paid to…
- In conclusion, the…
- The research paper reveals the content of the concept…
- The author traces the formation of…
- Generalized practical experience…
- The research paper examines the characteristic features…
- The research paper considers the key stages…
- As a research task, the authors defined an attempt to evaluate…
- The research paper reveals the processes…
- The research paper sums up the results of the study…
- The author gives a generalized characteristic…
- The author substantiates the idea that…
- The research paper analyzes the concepts of…
- As a key evidence of… author used…
- Discussion continues to be the question of …
- This research paper attempts to reveal the main reasons…
- The research paper sets out the views on…
- The author seeks to follow the process…
- The research paper gives an analysis of scientific research…
Remember About the Size and the Purpose
In general, the abstract is a kind of mini-description of the article, in which not only the essence of the research that was conducted is revealed, but also given the arguments in favor of its relevance. The abstract should not only demonstrate the characteristics of the problem and topics touched upon in the research paper but also describe the aims and results of the research conducted. It can determine the novelty of the work and how the research is positively different from thematically similar works. Remember that your abstract should not be too long. Usually its average size is five hundred characters.
Writing an abstract pay attention to the titles of the chapters in your research paper — they will help you form the proper abstract logic. Make sure to be laconic and descriptive at the same time. Format the abstract according to the required style. Good luck!
All in all, if you need professional assistance in writing an abstract for your research paper, you can always hire highly qualified academic writers online.