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/ 3. The Abstract

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper Search this Guide Search

Offers detailed guidance on how to develop, organize, and write a college-level research paper in the social
and behavioral sciences.

Purpose of Guide

Types of Research Designs

Design Flaws to Avoid

Independent and Dependent Variables

Glossary of Research Terms

1. Choosing a Research Problem

Reading Research Effectively

Narrowing a Topic Idea

Broadening a Topic Idea

Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea

2. Preparing to Write

Academic Writing Style

Choosing a Title

Making an Outline

Paragraph Development

3. The Abstract
 Executive Summary

4. The Introduction

The C.A.R.S. Model

Background Information

The Research Problem/Question

Theoretical Framework

5. The Literature Review

Citation Tracking

Content Alert Services

Evaluating Sources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Tiertiary Sources

What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?

6. The Methodology

Qualitative Methods

Quantitative Methods

7. The Results

Using Non-Textual Elements

8. The Discussion

Limitations of the Study

9. The Conclusion

Appendices
10. Proofreading Your Paper

Common Grammar Mistakes

Writing Concisely

11. Citing Sources

Avoiding Plagiarism

Footnotes or Endnotes?

Further Readings

Annotated Bibliography

Giving an Oral Presentation

Group Presentations

Dealing with Nervousness

Using Visual Aids

Grading Someone Else's Paper

How to Manage Group Projects

Types of Structured Group Activities

Group Project Survival Skills

Writing a Book Review

Multiple Book Review Essay

Reviewing Collected Works

Writing a Case Study

Writing a Field Report

About Informed Consent

Writing Field Notes

Writing a Policy Memo

Writing a Research Proposal

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Definition

An abstract summarizes, usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less, the major aspects of the entire
paper in a prescribed sequence that includes: 1) the overall purpose of the study and the research
problem(s) you investigated; 2) the basic design of the study; 3) major f indings or trends found as a result
of your analysis; and, 4) a brief summary of your interpretations and conclusions.

Writing an Abstract. The Writing Center. Clarion University, 2009.

Importance of a Good Abstract

Sometimes your professor will ask you to include an abstract, or general summary of your work, with your
research paper. The abstract allows you to elaborate upon each major aspect of the paper and helps
readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Therefore, enough key information
[e.g., summary results, observations, trends, etc.] must be included to make the abstract useful to
someone who may want to examine your work.

How do you know when you have enough information in your abstract? A simple rule-of-thumb is to
imagine that you are another researcher doing a similar study. Then ask yourself: if your abstract was the
only part of the paper you could access, would you be happy with the amount of information presented
there? Does it tell the whole story about your study? If the answer is "no" then the abstract likely needs to
be revised.

How to Write a Research Abstract. Off ice of Undergraduate Research. University of Kentucky; Staiger,
David L. “What Today’s Students Need to Know about Writing Abstracts.” International Journal of Business
Communication January 3 (1966): 29-33; Swales, John M. and Christine B. Feak. Abstracts and the Writing
of Abstracts. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009.

Structure and Writing Style

I. Types of Abstracts

To begin, you need to determine which type of abstract you should include with your paper. There are four
general types.

Critical Abstract
A critical abstract provides, in addition to describing main f indings and information, a judgment or
comment about the study’s validity, reliability, or completeness. The researcher evaluates the paper and
often compares it with other works on the same subject. Critical abstracts are generally 400-500 words in
length due to the additional interpretive commentary. These types of abstracts are used infrequently.

Descriptive Abstract
A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgments about
the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It does incorporate key words found
in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. Essentially, the descriptive
abstract only describes the work being summarized. Some researchers consider it an outline of the work,
rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short, 100 words or less.

Informative Abstract
The majority of abstracts are informative. While they still do not critique or evaluate a work, they do more
than describe it. A good informative abstract acts as a surrogate for the work itself. That is, the
researcher presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in the
paper. An informative abstract includes the information that can be found in a descriptive abstract
[purpose, methods, scope] but it also includes the results and conclusions of the research and the
recommendations of the author. The length varies according to discipline, but an informative abstract is
usually no more than 300 words in length.

Highlight Abstract
A highlight abstract is specif ically written to attract the reader’s attention to the study. No pretense is
made of there being either a balanced or complete picture of the paper and, in fact, incomplete and
leading remarks may be used to spark the reader’s interest. In that a highlight abstract cannot stand
independent of its associated article, it is not a true abstract and, therefore, rarely used in academic
writing.

II. Writing Style

Use the active voice when possible, but note that much of your abstract may require passive sentence
constructions. Regardless, write your abstract using concise, but complete, sentences. Get to the point
quickly and always use the past tense because you are reporting on a study that has been completed.

Formatting

Abstracts should be formatted as a single paragraph in a block format and with no paragraph
Abstracts should be formatted as a single paragraph in a block format and with no paragraph
indentations. In most cases, the abstract page immediately follows the title page. Do not number the
page. Rules set forth in writing manual vary but, in general, you should center the word "Abstract" at the
top of the page with double spacing between the heading and the abstract. The f inal sentences of an
abstract concisely summarize your study’s conclusions, implications, or applications to practice and, if
appropriate, can be followed by a statement about the need for additional research revealed from the
f indings.

Composing Your Abstract

Although it is the f irst section of your paper, the abstract should be written last since it will summarize the
contents of your entire paper. A good strategy to begin composing your abstract is to take whole
sentences or key phrases from each section of the paper and put them in a sequence that summarizes the
contents. Then revise or add connecting phrases or words to make the narrative flow clearly and smoothly.
Note that statistical f indings should be reported parenthetically [i.e., written in parentheses].

Before handing in your f inal paper, check to make sure that the information in the abstract completely
agrees with what you have written in the paper. Think of the abstract as a sequential set of complete
sentences describing the most crucial information using the fewest necessary words.

The abstract SHOULD NOT contain:

Lengthy background or contextual information,

Redundant phrases, unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and repetitive information;
Acronyms or abbreviations,
References to other literature [say something like, "current research shows that..." or "studies have
indicated..."],
Using ellipticals [i.e., ending with "..."] or incomplete sentences,
Jargon or terms that may be confusing to the reader,
Citations to other works, and
Any sort of image, illustration, f igure, or table, or references to them.

Abstract. Writing Center. University of Kansas; Abstract. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a
Journal-Style Scientif ic Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Abstracts. The Writing Center.
University of North Carolina; Borko, Harold and Seymour Chatman. "Criteria for Acceptable Abstracts: A
Survey of Abstracters' Instructions." American Documentation 14 (April 1963): 149-160; Abstracts. The
Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Hartley, James and Lucy Betts.
"Common Weaknesses in Traditional Abstracts in hte Social Sciences." Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology 60 (October 2009): 2010-2018; Procter, Margaret. The Abstract.
University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Riordan, Laura. “Mastering the Art of Abstracts.”
The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 115 (January 2015 ): 41-47; Writing Report Abstracts.
The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Abstracts. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for
Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Koltay, Tibor. Abstracts and Abstracting: A Genre
and Set of Skills for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford, UK: 2010

Writing Tip

Never Cite Just the Abstract!

Citing to just a journal article's abstract does not conf irm for the reader that you have conducted a
thorough or reliable review of the literature. If the full-text is not available, go to the USC Libraries main
page and enter the title of the article [NOT the title of the journal]. If the Libraries have a subscription to
the journal, the article should appear with a link to the full-text or to the journal publisher page where you
can get the article. If the article does not appear, try searching Google Scholar using the link on the USC
Libraries main page. If you still can't f ind the article after doing this, contact a librarian or you can
request it from our free interlibrary loan and document delivery service.

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