Research Abstract is definitely not new to anyone who has undertaken undergraduate or postgraduate courses. As I mentioned in a recent newsletter on substack, you may already know these about the research abstract:
- It is a summary of one’s research
- It helps a reader to understand what the research is about
- It should be written last
Here is what many students do not know:
An abstract, if well-written, helps other researchers during their literature review. By glancing at the abstract, you can decide if that paper is relevant to your research or not. You could even write a significant review/critique based on what you’ve read from the abstract.
Experienced researchers find that many times, a great abstract help to avoid desk rejection from journal editors.
Of course, you’ll agree that the research abstract should be quite an informative piece. It should be able to nicely wrap up important details about the research in relatively few words. No doubt, this would require great writing skills. An important skill necessary for writing a good abstract is logical thinking.
Nevertheless, there are guidelines for writing a good research abstract. Here are a few:
- Keep it concise, between 200 to 250 words is fine.
- Use Keywords. This is 3 to 5 everyday words (natural language) related to your topic
- Ensure that it contains the key elements which are brief background or rationale for the research, method, results, and conclusions. You can also highlight the originality of your paper in it.
Here are six well-written abstracts that could serve as templates for new researchers at graduate, undergraduate and even high school levels.
Give careful consideration to the abstract of your research paper. While it should be written last, it shouldn’t be a last-minute exercise.
Shout out to researchers whose abstracts are concise yet detailed enough. You save the research community literature review time. 😍👍
