An abstract of a research paper actually helps your reader to define if he is interested in your paper or not. That is why it is important to create a good and true impression within the short text limits. Learn how to write an abstract for a research paper properly and never face issues with this anymore!
The Purpose of an Abstract
It is important to tell, what the actual purpose of abstract writing is, so you will understand how to reach it better.
- To Ease the Search of Information
You already know that scientists search for sources a lot and they need to read quite a lot of materials to find the required information. To ease this task the abstracts were suggested. Thus, now a scientist does not need to read a full text, but just look through the abstract. This explanation makes you understand, that your abstract needs to give the main information of your research paper.
- To Summarize the Research Paper
An abstract reflects the whole paper in brief. Thus, it contains the same parts as a research paper text, but they are shortened to minimum.
Demands to Abstract Writing
Based on the purposes of the abstract for a research paper the following demands may be defined.
- An Abstract Needs to Be Concise
A good abstract takes around a paragraph up to 1-1.5 pages depending on the size of the whole document. There should be nothing that can be taken off without a noticeable impact to sense.
- It Should Be Clear
Although the sentences will be not that short, you still need to make your abstract clear. The related terms definitely need to be used, but there should not be too much of them.
- An Abstract Needs to Have the Same Structural Parts as the Research Paper
A proper abstract can be easily divided into parts as a research paper. However, those parts will be much shorter.
1) Introduction
The first sentence of your abstract should represent introduction and the thesis statement in particular. Basically, you should tell what the research paper is about in a few words. The literature review can be represented by naming of the scientists, who worked on this issue. However, this part is optional.
2) Methods
It is important to specify, what methods have been applied to carry the research. Actually, they determine the approach to the issue reviewed. You should just name the methods in your abstract.
3) Results
This is one of the central parts of your research paper and it definitely needs to be included to your abstract. Just specify, what results your research showed.
4) Discussion
Now you need to evaluate the results within a sentence or two. What do those findings show/confirm/disprove?
5) Conclusion
Finally, the last sentence of your abstract will put an emphasis on the importance of the research and the meaning of those discoveries to the future research on this issue and the related ones.
Help with Abstract Writing
For you to be informed, you can send your research paper to our writer, and he will be able to add a good abstract for it. Thus, there is no need to worry in case you do not know how to write an abstract for a research paper.