TOPIC 3

ABSTRACT & RESEARCH

BACKGROUND
ECC563
R ESEA RCH MET HO D O LO GY

DR ZADARIANA JAMIL
zadariana@uitm.edu.my
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this week, student should able to prepare a good abstract and research
background for the area being studied.
PREPARING ABSTRACT
❖ The abstract is presented at the beginning of the proposal or final report.
The reader will most likely refer to this section first in order to get an
overall idea of your research and decide if it is of interest to the reader, or
not.
❖ The abstract is a summary of the whole proposal/final report. It presents
all the major elements of your work in a highly condensed form.
❖ The structure of the abstract should represent the structure of the entire
proposal/final report, and should contain all its major elements, i.e.
introduction, methodology, results (or expected results), conclusion.
 PREPARING ABSTRACT
❖ Keep your abstract short and simple (in one page preferably 150 to 250 words).
❖ A good abstract has the following qualities:
1. Uses one or more well developed paragraphs: theseare unified, coherent, concise.
2. Uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure.
3. Follows the chronology of the proposal/final report.
4. Provides logical connections between the information included.
5. Adds no new information, but simply summarises.
6. Often uses passive verbs to downplay the authorand emphasize information.
e.g. The research was conducted for the purpose of …….
Observations were made during …
 PREPARING ABSTRACT
❖ For proposals, however, use the future tense since you have not conducted the work nor
obtained any results yet.

e.g. The collection of data will involve …..

A relationship will be developed between …..

❖ Remember, although the abstract comes first, it should be prepared last!

❖ Avoid the use of personal experiencesand opinions.

❖ Avoid using references or quotes.

PREPARING ABSTRACT
An abstract must make sense all by itself

SHORT

POWERFUL
COMPLETE
 PREPARING
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Overview of your topic (i.e. What do you want readers to know about concerning your topic?)
1. General information about your What is happening now about your issue you want to study
topic
2. Context of your topic • What are the conditions , settings and situations with
respect to your topic?
• Who are directly or indirectly involved?

3. Rationale/ Justification of your topic • Why should the readers pay attention to your topic or the
issue you want to study/ address?
• Why should the readers care about your topic?
• Why is there a need to focus on the topic?

One time-saving approach to background and preparatory reading is to select just a few key books or articles initially
on the chosen topic area and use these as a base for identifying other relevant texts as a starting point for your
information search.
 PREPARING
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Example :
Example
General
information

Context of
your topic

Rationale/
Justification of
your topic
Thank
you
ASSIGNMENT 1