How to Write the Abstract of a Literature Review

Definition and Purpose of Abstracts

An abstract is a curt summary of your (published or unpublished) inquiry paper, usually about a paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstruse serves multiple purposes:

• an abstruse lets readers get the gist or essence of your newspaper or article chop-chop, in order to decide whether to read the full paper;
• an abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed data, analyses, and arguments in your full paper;
• and, later, an abstruse helps readers recollect key points from your paper.

It'due south also worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases employ abstracts, as well as the title, to identify key terms for indexing your published paper. So what you include in your abstruse and in your title are crucial for helping other researchers find your paper or commodity.

If you are writing an abstract for a course paper, your professor may requite you lot specific guidelines for what to include and how to organize your abstract. Similarly, academic journals oft have specific requirements for abstracts. So in addition to post-obit the advice on this folio, you should exist certain to wait for and follow any guidelines from the course or journal you're writing for.

The Contents of an Abstract

Abstracts contain well-nigh of the post-obit kinds of data in brief grade. The torso of your paper volition, of course, develop and explain these ideas much more fully. As yous will see in the samples below, the proportion of your abstract that you devote to each kind of information—and the sequence of that information—will vary, depending on the nature and genre of the paper that you are summarizing in your abstract. And in some cases, some of this information is implied, rather than stated explicitly. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which is widely used in the social sciences, gives specific guidelines for what to include in the abstruse for different kinds of papers—for empirical studies, literature reviews or meta-analyses, theoretical papers, methodological papers, and instance studies.

Here are the typical kinds of information found in well-nigh abstracts:

1. the context or groundwork data for your research; the general topic under written report; the specific topic of your inquiry
2. the central questions or statement of the problem your research addresses
3. what's already known about this question, what previous research has done or shown
4. the main reason(s), the exigency, the rationale, the goals for your inquiry—Why is it important to address these questions? Are yous, for instance, examining a new topic? Why is that topic worth examining? Are yous filling a gap in previous research? Applying new methods to accept a fresh look at existing ideas or information? Resolving a dispute inside the literature in your field? . . .
5. your research and/or analytical methods
6. your main findings, results, or arguments
7. the significance or implications of your findings or arguments.

Your abstract should be intelligible on its own, without a reader'southward having to read your unabridged paper. And in an abstruse, you usually do not cite references—near of your abstract will describe what you lot accept studied in your research and what you have found and what you fence in your paper. In the body of your newspaper, you will cite the specific literature that informs your research.

When to Write Your Abstract

Although y'all might be tempted to write your abstract commencement because information technology will appear every bit the very outset part of your newspaper, it'south a good idea to look to write your abstract until after you lot've drafted your total paper, so that you lot know what you're summarizing.

What follows are some sample abstracts in published papers or articles, all written by kinesthesia at UW-Madison who come from a diverseness of disciplines. Nosotros have annotated these samples to help you lot see the work that these authors are doing within their abstracts.

Choosing Verb Tenses within Your Abstract

The social science sample (Sample 1) below uses the nowadays tense to describe general facts and interpretations that accept been and are currently true, including the prevailing explanation for the social phenomenon under study. That abstract likewise uses the present tense to describe the methods, the findings, the arguments, and the implications of the findings from their new research study. The authors utilize the by tense to describe previous research.

The humanities sample (Sample ii) below uses the past tense to draw completed events in the past (the texts created in the pulp fiction manufacture in the 1970s and 80s) and uses the present tense to describe what is happening in those texts, to explain the significance or significant of those texts, and to draw the arguments presented in the article.

The science samples (Samples 3 and iv) beneath use the past tense to draw what previous research studies have done and the enquiry the authors take conducted, the methods they have followed, and what they have found. In their rationale or justification for their inquiry (what remains to be done), they use the present tense. They besides use the nowadays tense to introduce their study (in Sample 3, "Hither nosotros report . . .") and to explain the significance of their written report (In Sample iii, This reprogramming . . . "provides a scalable jail cell source for. . .").

Sample Abstruse one

From the social sciences

Reporting new findings about the reasons for increasing economical homogamy amidst spouses

Gonalons-Pons, Pilar, and Christine R. Schwartz. "Trends in Economical Homogamy: Changes in Assortative Mating or the Division of Labor in Marriage?" Demography, vol. 54, no. 3, 2017, pp. 985-1005.

Sample Abstract 2

From the humanities

Analyzing surreptitious pulp fiction publications in Tanzania, this article makes an argument about the cultural significance of those publications

Emily Callaci. "Street Textuality: Socialism, Masculinity, and Urban Belonging in Tanzania's Pulp Fiction Publishing Manufacture, 1975-1985." Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 59, no. i, 2017, pp. 183-210.

Sample Abstract/Summary 3

From the sciences

Reporting a new method for reprogramming adult mouse fibroblasts into induced cardiac progenitor cells

Lalit, Pratik A., Max R. Salick, Daryl O. Nelson, Jayne Chiliad. Squirrell, Christina Thousand. Shafer, Neel G. Patel, Imaan Saeed, Eric G. Schmuck, Yogananda S. Markandeya, Rachel Wong, Martin R. Lea, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Timothy A. Hacker, Wendy C. Crone, Michael Kyba, Daniel J. Garry, Ron Stewart, James A. Thomson, Karen M. Downs, Gary Due east. Lyons, and Timothy J. Kamp. "Lineage Reprogramming of Fibroblasts into Proliferative Induced Cardiac Progenitor Cells by Divers Factors." Jail cell Stalk Cell, vol. 18, 2016, pp. 354-367.

Note: This journal calls this paragraph at the beginning of the article a "Summary," rather than an "Abstract." This periodical provides multiple ways for readers to grasp the content of this research article quickly. In addition to this paragraph-length prose summary, this article also has an effective graphical abstract, a bulleted list of highlights list at the beginning of the article, and a ii-sentence "In Brief" summary.

Sample Abstruse four, a Structured Abstract

From the sciences

Reporting results nigh the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy in managing astute bacterial sinusitis, from a rigorously controlled study

Note: This journal requires authors to organize their abstract into 4 specific sections, with strict word limits. Because the headings for this structured abstract are self-explanatory, we have called not to add together annotations to this sample abstruse.

Wald, Ellen R., David Nash, and Jens Eickhoff. "Effectiveness of Amoxicillin/Clavulanate Potassium in the Treatment of Acute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children." Pediatrics, vol. 124, no. 1, 2009, pp. 9-15.

Abstruse

"OBJECTIVE: The part of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) in children is controversial. The purpose of this study was to decide the effectiveness of high-dose amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate in the treatment of children diagnosed with ABS.

METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Children ane to ten years of age with a clinical presentation compatible with ABS were eligible for participation. Patients were stratified according to age (<half dozen or ≥6 years) and clinical severity and randomly assigned to receive either amoxicillin (90 mg/kg) with potassium clavulanate (6.4 mg/kg) or placebo. A symptom survey was performed on days 0, ane, 2, three, 5, seven, 10, 20, and xxx. Patients were examined on solar day 14. Children's weather were rated as cured, improved, or failed according to scoring rules.

RESULTS: Two thousand 1 hundred thirty-v children with respiratory complaints were screened for enrollment; 139 (6.v%) had ABS. Fifty-viii patients were enrolled, and 56 were randomly assigned. The hateful historic period was 6630 months. 50 (89%) patients presented with persistent symptoms, and 6 (eleven%) presented with nonpersistent symptoms. In 24 (43%) children, the illness was classified equally mild, whereas in the remaining 32 (57%) children information technology was severe. Of the 28 children who received the antibiotic, xiv (50%) were cured, 4 (14%) were improved, iv(fourteen%) experienced treatment failure, and six (21%) withdrew. Of the 28children who received placebo, 4 (14%) were cured, 5 (18%) improved, and 19 (68%) experienced handling failure. Children receiving the antibiotic were more than probable to be cured (50% vs 14%) and less probable to have treatment failure (14% vs 68%) than children receiving the placebo.

CONCLUSIONS: ABS is a common complexity of viral upper respiratory infections. Amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate results in significantly more cures and fewer failures than placebo, according to parental study of time to resolution." (9)

Some Excellent Advice virtually Writing Abstracts for Basic Science Research Papers, by Professor Adriano Aguzzi from the Institute of Neuropathology at the Academy of Zurich:

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Source: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/