Write a Strong Summary: Tips For Getting a Good First Impression

Abstraction is perhaps the most important part of your manuscript. We will tell you how to write a good abstract to maximize the attention of your research

Abstracts are probably the most important part of your manuscript for several reasons. First, the abstract is the first part that a journal editor reads when deciding whether to submit your paper for review. Likewise, when your work is published, this is the first part of a reader review. In many cases, this is the only part of the document that the reader will read. This is partly because most bibliographic databases only include index abstracts, and access to the full text of articles is often restricted.

In this way, the abstract becomes a tool that succinctly conveys your research and highlights its most important aspects. The following article explains how to write good abstracts to maximize the attention of your research.

1. Write a dissertation first

Some writers will tell you that you must write an abstract as soon as you complete your research. However, it is likely that your project will take months or even years, so the full picture of the research you have done may not be clear in your mind. Writing a paper first can solve this problem. When you compress all aspects of your work into one file, your memory will be refreshed effectively. Manuscripts can guide abstract writing, which is a summary of your research. Clicking on https://www.paperhelp.org/research-papers can help find the picture of how the thesis should be written.

Write strong abstracts

If you can’t decide where to start writing, consider your dissertation and outline the most important sentences (introduction, methods, results, and discussion / conclusions) for each section. Then use these sentences as an outline for abstract writing. At this point, it is also important to understand the style of your target journal and learn their abstract principles. For example, some journals require a clear abstract structure, divided into sections, and most journals have strict word restrictions.

2. Provide introductory background information that leads to your statement of purpose

The first part of the abstract, and these 1-3 sentences should let the reader know why you are doing research.

For example, “the importance of epistatic effects (ie non-additive responses) between alleles on the formation of population health has been a controversial problem, in part due to the lack of experimental evidence.” sentence. It states the main topics (the role of epistatic effects on population health) and problems (lack of experimental evidence in this field). In this way, the reader’s attention is immediately captured. The next sentence can tell us what kind of information is lacking in this field, or what efforts have been made by previous researchers to solve this problem.

3. Briefly describe your method

The summary method section is an opportunity to outline the basic design of your research. Excessive detail is not needed, but you should briefly state the main techniques used. Abstraction in the biological or clinical field must refer to the organism, cell line, or population that is being studied. In the case of ecological papers, research sites are usually important information. Papers in clinical trials must specify the sample size, patient groups, dosage, and duration of the study.

4. Clearly explain the most important findings from your research

Just as abstracts can be the most important part of a paper, the results section may be the most important part of the abstract. This is because the main reason someone reads your summary is to understand your findings. Therefore, the results section must be the longest summary, and you must provide as much detail as possible here.

5. State your conclusions briefly and avoid overdoing them

The last 1-2 sentences from the abstract should be used to summarize the key information about the research: your conclusions. A good way to start this section is to use sentences like “Our research findings ••••••” or “Overall, our conclusions are ••••••”. Then state your main findings as short as possible. If you have other interesting secondary discoveries, you can also mention them. Finally, consider writing a statement that states the theoretical or practical significance of your work, and / or how your work advances the field. This will help the reader understand more clearly the importance of your findings.

As mentioned earlier, many readers who cannot get the full text of your manuscript will read your abstract, and because they cannot get your data, they can only accept your conclusions in full. For this reason, do not overestimate the importance of conclusions in the abstract to mislead the reader.