How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper

How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper: Tips on Effective Writing and Saving Time

What do you typically do before you opt for a certain movie to watch in the evening? Most probably, you watch several trailers and then decide which of them hints at a better movie. Learning how to write an abstract for a research paper, you will see that an abstract is similar to a movie trailer in terms of its purpose. Your research needs some promotion, and a well-written abstract will ensure that for you.

What do professors typically do before they start assessing the research papers? Right! They read through the synopsis or abstract first. So, it is natural that abstract writing requires a lot of efforts, major concentration, and your attention to details. You do want to be effective at your writing, so let us start working on the improvements right away!

Defining an Abstract

It is an acknowledged definition of a research paper abstract that it is a brief synopsis that gives a generalized and summarized idea of the whole paper to the readers, together with the details about the applied methods and other crucial aspects. Any example of an abstract for a research paper confirms that it is aimed at making the readers interested in reading the paper.

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Research Paper Abstracts: Classification

The typical nature of all abstracts is informative; still, there are four more types, which are also important for the students:

1. Informative

This abstract is incorporated in the academic papers, in particular research, with strict structure standards. It implies no evaluation, but presents mere description of the facts. The readers view it as the paper in its shortened version.

2. Highlighting

This type of abstracts is concise and simple. It is supposed to attract the readers’ attention from the first lines and identify the research type in understandable terms with mentioning the key figures, findings, and study contributions. One of the accepted forms of these abstracts is in bullet points.

3. Descriptive

A strict restriction of the word count to 100 words makes it specific. It is a description of the paper of some other author with the identified study purpose and relevant background information without any details about the results, methods, and research conclusions.

4. Indicative

Abstracts of an indicative type are used for the books, essays, and other documents with less strict structure. They comprise such components as scope, arguments, and conclusions. Scope shows the starting premise and range of the used materials. Arguments present the key ideas and counterarguments follow the same order as it is in the paper itself. Conclusions demonstrate the implications of the author and present the closing arguments in the abstract for a research paper.

5. Critical

This abstract demonstrates a shorter variant of a critical review with all the details about the judgment and study in terms of the scope and validity of the research. Its approximate length is 500 words and it is not used frequently.

Abstract Writing Guidelines

An abstract of a research paper is supposed to let the audience learn about the study main points and findings in different formats according to the research area. A typical abstract structure is the following:

• Objective and motivation
  What is an abstract for a research paper? It is an announcement of the problem to solve or the issue to raise for investigation. It also presents the explanation of the relevance the study has and its significance for the future studies.
• Approach and methods
  Having explained the value of your research, you can go on to the explanations of the research procedure. However, only relevant details should be included into this part.
• Findings and results
  Make sure you know how to write an abstract for a research paper and summarize the study outcomes without any percentages and numbers. There should be no qualitative adjectives either. State the scope of success your research has and analyze whether the results are preliminarily expected.
• Implicationsand Conclusions

Present the discussion of your obtained results and evaluate their value at a larger scope. Do not give any reasons for others to criticize you; so, do not sound excessively ambitious.

The average length of an abstract is not more than 300 words. If you have studied all the standards of how to write an abstract for a research paper, you know that this limit can be impossible to meet if the research is conducted at a profound level.

Have a look at the check list we have prepared for you to see if you have done an effective abstract:

• Work on the abstract after the research is completed.
• Choose only the most aspects of the highest rate of relevance after thorough study of all chapters.
• Avoid any copy-pasting. Instead, use summarization.
• The terms ‘study’ or ‘research’ are better than ‘article’ and ‘paper.’
• Passive voice is not welcome. Use active voice instead.
• Incomplete sentences, ambiguities, and inconsistencies are not allowed.
• Check on the word count allowed and exclude all redundancies. Only the core details should be included.

Ask the following questions:

• Can I refer to this research paper abstract as to a coherent, brief, and clear piece of writing?
• Are all key points covered?
• Is it summarization without any new details included?

If your answer is ‘yes’ to all the questions, you know how to write an abstract for a research paper. If you feel that you are still not on the right track, it is better to contact a professional service of abstract writing and order the paper from us.

Abstract for a Research Paper Example

Abstract: California’s Education Crisis

Education — it is a necessity that holds the key to a successful future and brings better opportunities for future generations to come. What will occur when our “key to a successful future” continues to decline? If education is such an asset and important institution that serves not only the certain individual in his or her quest for upward mobility, but is equally critical to fulfill the nations and states agenda, why do we ignore and neglect it so? What will occur when our education system fails? Our education system is already failing miserably; therefore, we as a people need to unite, make a u-turn, and stop our education system from entirely collapsing. This dissertation analyzes and examines the inner crisis which is California’s Education. It observes the immense issues that Proposition 13 and Budget Cuts have on California’s education system, leading it to a downward spiral. The dissertation goes into the details of how Proposition 13 and the Budget Cuts are related, how they both play their parts, and how they affect the education system dramatically. Proposition 13 is a property tax measure that ended up limiting funds to the majority of schools and providing less money to the schools that needed it the most. Few of the many devastating quantities of consequences (discussed in the dissertation) due to budget cuts are: more crowded classrooms, diminished programs, poorer facilities, and an exacerbated amount of decreasing teachers. In conclusion of the dissertation, solutions for California’s Education Crisis are discussed. California not only needs to re-imagine its once ever so vibrant higher education system, but restore it back to greatness.

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