ChE 462

Prof. C.A. Steiner

What does, and does not, go in an ABSTRACT

prepared Nov. 13, 2015

An ABSTRACT (literally, pull (= -tract) away from (= ab-))

consists of BRIEF highlights of each section of a paper. It is the first
thing a reader sees, and it tells the reader what he or she will find in
the paper, so the reader can decide whether he wants to read the
whole thing. So this section contains a MAXIMUM of 1 or 2 sentences
summarizing each section of the paper, and SHOULD BE WRITTEN
AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED WRITING THE REPORT.
Here is what goes into an Abstract:
from the INTRODUCTION (1 sentence):
DO NOT repeat the background information:
DO state the objective of this study (from your outline, that will
generally be similar to the LAST SENTENCE of the Introduction).
from the EXPERIMENTAL SECTION (1 or 2 sentences):
DO NOT include specific details about the apparatus, how the samples
were prepared, or how the measurements were taken;
DO say what type of apparatus was used, what was controlled, what
was varied, and what was measured (WHAT, not HOW).
from the RESULTS SECTION (1 or 2 sentences):
DO NOT describe your data or plots, or recap how you analyzed your
data;
DO say what the data showed (y goes up with x, y exhibits a
minimum with x, etc.), and DO include numbers (domain of x, range
of y, coordinates of interesting points).
from the CONCLUSIONS SECTION (1 sentence):
DO NOT include your suggestions for future work;
DO include what the results show or mean.