Know more about abstract writing
In the modern era of instant gratification, people have a low attention span (about eight seconds). If people do not find your headlines or content concise and appealing, they will not even bother to go through your content published on a website, newspaper, or magazine. They are most likely to move on to the next topic or website.
For this reason that it is now mandatory for research papers, theses, white papers, etcetera to have an abstract to make it easy for readers to go through the content. An abstract summarizes a long form of content like research papers, theses, white papers, etc. An abstract usually has headings like the research’s aim, the research methods, and the research outcome.
What is the ideal length and content of an abstract?
There is no fixed length to write an abstract, but it is highly recommended to keep it between 150 and 300 words. An appropriate and appealing abstract will have the following characteristics:
- The information in the abstract will have a definite tone rather than an uncertain one. For example, it will have sentences like “Ibuprofen reduces pain in all patients” rather than “Ibuprofen appears to reduce pain in patients.”
- It will not have any unnecessary adverbs. For example, it will have statements like “We dissected the varicose nerve” instead of “We slowly and carefully dissected the varicose nerve.”
- It will not have unnecessary transitory words like moreover, nevertheless, additionally, etc. For example, it will have statements like “We also measured the patient’s BP” instead of “Additionally, we measured the patient’s BP.”
- The information will be given in an active voice rather than a passive voice, even though the usage of both is grammatically correct. This is because the active voice shows the ownership of the scientist/author and makes the content more engaging. For example, the abstract will have statements like “We grew the stem cells in a dilute solution of triglycerides and alcohol” rather than “The stem cells were grown in a dilute solution of triglycerides and alcohol.”
- The abstract will not include any statistical data unless it is a research paper based on statistics. Including stats in your abstract will give readers all the key information at the beginning, and readers will lose interest in reading the rest of your article. Including statistical data will also interrupt your narrative, flow of ideas and the usage of good vocabulary in your abstract. Including statistical data in your abstract will also dilute the need for other content sections like Methods Used, Observations Made, Conclusions Drawn, etc.
- Last but not least, the abstract will have at least a few citations from respected and genuine sources (online and offline) to add more credibility to it and to keep the users engaged.
Conclusion
An abstract is more or less like the headings used in an article published on any platform. If the abstract of your research paper, thesis, white paper, etcetera is not concise, catchy, and engaging; people will simply ignore your article and move on to the next one.
No matter how informative or extensive, your research article will not appeal to your target audience. In essence, your entire effort will go in vain if your abstract is not concise and engaging.
So, in case you want your research article to gain a lot of readership and engagement, kindly follow the guidelines or best practices mentioned in this article. That way, your research article would have served the purpose for which it was written.