Entry 13: Abstract

 

What is an abstract?

   An abstract is an independent text that comprises the most important concepts of the paper, the purpose of the research, the state of the art, what is missing, and the result of the investigation.

    Each sentence in an abstract fulfils a specific purpose. These are called "moves".

- the overall purpose of the study and the research problem (s) investigated,

- the basic design of the study,

- major fondings found as a result of the nalysis,

- a brief summary of the conclusions.

 

The following Padlet timeline contains more information about "abstracts". I hope you find it useful.

    Personally, writing an abstract is more complex than one can imagine. It is about summarizing in a single paragraph - approximately 300 words - a complete text with pretentious rules with the intention of catching the readers' attention about what the text is about. After the research is done, I have to think carefully about the relevant concept related to the content of the text. In addition to avoiding paraphrasing, giving arguments, examples or any type of information that is reiterative, it is important to use clear and easy-to-understand words in order to capture the interest of readers. In my opinion, this information is very useful because it prevents readers from reading the full text in case of not being what they are looking for.