Year 2 Tutorials: Abstract Marking Guidelines

Assignment
Write an abstract for a scientific paper. You will be given a paper relevant to your degree
programme for which the abstract has been removed. You must read the paper and compose an
abstract based on the experiments performed, including relevant results and conclusions. The
language used in your abstract must be scientific and aimed at a specialist reader.

Marking guidelines
The abstract should provide a clear and accurate summary of the paper. The following components
will be assessed (% split in brackets):
Content (60%): Is there a brief introduction to the topic of the paper?
Are the experiments and results presented in a logical manner?
Does the abstract indicate why the results shown are important?
Is the overall conclusion of the paper made clear?

Language (40%): Is there appropriate use of scientific vocabulary and/or technical terms?
Are concise sentences and appropriate field-specific formatting used?

Length: 10% will be deducted from total if >250 words

The following will be used as a guideline for awarding marks:

<50% Badly written abstract. Disjointed with no logical flow of information. Little
understanding of experiments or results. Written for lay audience with limited technical
language.
50-59% Some attempt to use technical language. Main points of paper are covered although
not always in logical manner.
60-69% Paper is summarised reasonably well with technical language and/or jargon that
demonstrates understanding of the experimental work.
70% Clearly written abstract with excellent understanding of experimental results and their
relative significance. Logical presentation that resembles the true published abstract.