Writing an Abstract

At this point, you have probably already been working on your research for a long time, but the
most important part of the project still remains—you need to explain your work to others. Since
this may be the first time that many of you have written an abstract for an academic
presentation, the purpose of this document is to provide you with a few tips on how to create the
best possible abstract.

We believe that it is useful to use a principle called the “hourglass” to structure your abstract.
For those of you who are only accustomed to digital watches, an hourglass is wide at the top,
narrow in the middle, and then wide again at the bottom. A well-structured abstract can take the
same approach—general at the beginning, becoming more specific in the middle, and then
becoming more general again at the end. This approach is applicable to abstracts in any
discipline.

An abstract using the hourglass principle may look like the following list. Many times, these
topics are presented in separate sentences, but, sometimes, two topics may be combined into
one sentence. Abstracts in most disciplines include all of these topics, while those for creative
projects can be less structured and often focus on artistic expression and/or a path of personal
discovery.

 General background information. The readers may know little to nothing at all about your
research topic. You need to give the readers a sense of the relevant background information
so that they are able to understand the basic premise of your work
 Facts about the topic. After you told the readers what you are researching in a general
sense, tell them more details about the specific topic/area of your research.
 Statement of the problem. If everything were already known about your topic, there
wouldn’t be any reason for you to do the research! There is some lack of knowledge,
some unanswered question, some shortcomings with the existing approaches, some
unproven approach, etc. that you are seeking to accomplish. Explain this to the reader.
Many times, this sentence begins with a word like “however” or has the phrase
“remains unknown”
 Statement of purpose. What is the purpose of your research? State it specifically
in one sentence. Many times, this sentence begins with the phrase “the purpose of
this study…” or “we hypothesized that…”
 Methods. What did you do? What text did you analyze? What experiments did
you run? What simulations did you create? What surveys did you administer?
What tools and approach did you employ?
 Results. What did you discover? If this is still a work in progress, what have
you done so far and what still needs to do be done?
 Discussion. After doing all of this work, how do the results apply to the statement of the
problem? Do your results agree or disagree with what others have found? Do they agree
with what you thought was going to happen?
 Conclusion/importance. This last sentence answers the question “so what?” After
spending so much of your time conducting this research, why is the world a better
place? What impact did you make in your field? The end of your abstract is also a good
place to suggest directions for future research, if you want to include this.
Be sure to follow the official guidelines for how to write a conference abstract (most
conferences have strict word count limits), and asking your research advisor for comments
on your draft abstract before you submit it.

Let’s look at a few previous abstracts to see how this approach has been used. Below, we
added some parenthetical, blue comments for emphasis (headings such as these are not
used in the final abstract). We look forward to reading your newly crafted and well
organized abstract!

ABSTRACT EXAMPLES:

Discipline: Education
Title: Access to Excellence: Chicago School Desegregation and Its Impact on Latino
Students
Presenter: Luis Sanchez

(Background) For years school segregation has plagued America’s public school system
resulting in unequal access to education for racial minority groups. (Facts and problem
statement) Much of the prior research has focused on the black-white racial binary while failing
to recognize the plight of Latinos in the struggle for equal education. (Purpose) This study
focuses on the development of Chicago’s desegregation plan, Access to Excellence, and its
effect on the current status of Latino students in the Chicago Public Schools district. (Methods)
The methods include using archival research to uncover documents and reports presented in
the construction of Chicago’s desegregation plan and statistical information gathered from the
Illinois State Board of Education and the Chicago Public Schools. (Results) Current progress in
the research shows that Latinos were marginalized in the creation of the desegregation plan
which relied heavily on voluntary practices such as magnet schools. The statistical analysis of
Chicago magnet high schools shows they are performing higher in measures of academic
achievement when compared to neighborhood schools. However, the use of parity ratios
demonstrates that Latinos are heavily underrepresented in Chicago magnet high schools.
(Discussion) The preliminary findings suggest that the reliance of magnet schools in the
desegregation plan were not beneficial to Latino students since these schools were not located
near areas of large Latino population and bilingual education was not taken into account.
(Importance) Therefore, Latino families were reluctant to send their children to schools outside
of their sub-districts that did not offer bilingual education.

Discipline: Food Science and Technology

Title: Food Transformations
Author: Debra Van Camp

(Background) Trans fats are harmful to human health and have been linked to increased risks of
cardiovascular diseases. (Facts) The majority of trans fats in the average American diet come
from partially hydrogenated oils, which have undergone a chemical process to produce a semi-
solid lipid. Partially hydrogenated oils are used in a wide range of food applications due to their
superior stability and functionality. In 2003, the United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) published a final rule mandating the labeling of trans fat content on all traditional food
labels by January 1, 2006. This policy was created to both inform consumer food choice and
influence product formulation. (Problem statement) The FDA predicted it would save over $900
million in health-related costs and more than 2000 lives annually, but this prediction has not
been verified. (Purpose) The objectives of this study were to determine if and to what extent this
ruling caused food manufactures to reduce the use of partially hydrogenated oils, and to
determine what ingredients are being used to replace partially hydrogenated oils. (Methods)
Two real-time product databases, GNPD and Productscan, were used to analyze food products
released in the US market from 2000-2007. Factors including nutrition content, trans fat labeling
claim, and percentage of products containing partially hydrogenated oils where analyzed by
year and by food category. (Results) The data show a strong correlation between the FDA's
ruling and the reduction in the use of trans fats. (Discussion) The data also illustrate that some
categories have been able to reduce the use of partially hydrogenated oils faster and more
efficiently than others, likely due to the availability of acceptable substitutes. (Importance) This
study provides evidence that appropriate regulatory policies can be an effective tool in
influencing food product formulations and ultimately human health.

Discipline: Art
Title: Distillation of Information: A Conscious Endeavor, Moving from Parts Towards a
Whole
Presenter: Nathaniel Ricciuto

(Background) I am fascinated with the benign objects and images that we glance over every
day without assigning any particular positive or negative value. A telephone pole, a cement
block, and a janitor’s mop-bucket are examples. They exhibit aspects of the modern
environment that, while so incredibly intertwined with daily existence, are completely lacking
in any compelling information beyond that of their basic function. (Problem statement and
purpose) In my research as a visual artist, it is my intent to break these things down into
their basic parts and recontextualize them. I want to use these extracted fragments to create
a whole that reveals something beyond our normal experience of them. (Methods, results,
and discussion) Through the process of recreating commonplace objects in glass and
constructing installation sculpture, I am manipulating the context in which the objects are
normally encountered. I think that we construct an understanding of our surroundings and
ourselves based on fragmented pieces of information. This process allows the human mind
to contextualize internal thoughts and feelings in an outward way, essentially building
consciousness upon a foundation of simplified and sometimes limited, functional
perceptions. My artwork is not so much a reaction to, or commentary on, but rather a
continuation of this process through the use of glass as a medium to allow me and others to
see how we think and organize our reactions to a number of simple objects or ideas. The
extraction of one thing from another, by way of a process, is deconstruction. I think that the
seemingly unimportant interactions with our environment that happen every day contribute a
vast amount to the formation of the conscious self. (Importance) I work to extract something
useful from something obscure. However, being that the starting point of my artwork is
obscurity, the information that I extract through the process of deconstruction may be the
most valuable part of this work. I feel that I will have succeeded if the end result is truly
informed by the process of bringing focus and visibility to the obscure.

Discipline: Humanities
Author: Rachelle Morgan
Title: ‘The wars shall be my mistress now’: Masculinity, Heroism, and Love in John
Fletcher's Bonduca
(Background)The Renaissance was a time when society and its values were closely examined
and questioned in a way the world had not seen for many centuries. (Facts) A key area of
questioning concerned the roles of the sexes, including traditional constructions of masculinity
and relationships between men. (Problem) The stage was a place where these conflicts came to
life, and where playwrights offered their own ways of formulating questions about this subject.
(Purpose) In this study, I explore the approach of one playwright, John Fletcher, and his play
Bonduca. More specifically, I examine Fletcher’s construction of the Roman soldier, a figure that
frequented the dramas of the Renaissance and provided an opportunity to investigate the
masculine values of heroism and war. (Methods) In order to better understand the unique angle
of Fletcher’s play, it is important to first view it in light of other dramas performed around the
same time. To accomplish this end, I compare Bonduca to Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, a work
with a strikingly similar plot that leads the audiences to very different conclusions. Also, by
engaging in the critical discussion around Bonduca, I am able to evaluate the different
interpretations of Fletcher’s work that have been proposed by various literary critics and further
refine my own analysis. (Result and discussion) Although Fletcher’s play is ultimately an
affirmation of masculine heroism and values in favor of “feminine” romantic love, it also
demonstrates for us a breakdown of traditional heterosexual masculinity. This includes
surpassing the borders of intimate friendship that would have been considered normal behavior
during the 17th century. (Importance) This deconstruction of the traditional masculine provides
an alternative to the structure of masculinity of the time, speaking to the concern regarding
gender in Renaissance society and questioning the idea of strictly heterosexual heroism.

Discipline: Biomedical Sciences

Title: MicroRNA Signature of Tamoxifen Resistance in Breast Cancer
Tyler Miller

(Background) Tamoxifen (TAM) is the current standard adjuvant therapy in pre-menopausal

women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. (Facts) Unfortunately, about 30% of these
tumors are primarily resistant (de novo) to Tamoxifen. (Problem) The exact mechanism for the
Tamoxifen resistance has not been well established. (Purpose) To explore the potential role of
microRNAs (miRs) in induction of Tamoxifen resistance, we analyzed their expression in
Tamoxifen-sensitive and resistant cell lines. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that
regulate gene expression primarily by mRNA cleavage. (Methods) Using two MCF-7 (breast
cancer) cell lines, one sensitive to TAM and the other resistant to TAM, we performed
microRNA microarray analysis. (Results) After validation by Real-Time Quantitative PCR, three
miRs were found to be significantly up-regulated in the TAM resistant cell line, while three other
miRs were significantly down-regulated in this cell line. A known target of one of these miRs,
p27/Kip, was an established tumor suppressor that inhibits cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2), a
positive regulator of the cell cycle. The protein levels of p27/Kip were significantly reduced in
TAM resistant cells, consistent with the up-regulation of the miRs. To study the role of miRs and
their target genes in conferring Tamoxifen resistance, the corresponding cDNAs were
expressed in MCF-7 cell lines and assessed for alteration in sensitivity to TAM. Primary human
breast tumors are also currently being analyzed to determine if a similar miR signature is
observed. (Discussion) These findings indicate that there is an altered microRNA profile in the
Tamoxifen-resistant cell line and that this altered profile may be used as a prognostic marker for
Tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer. (Importance) This study also helps delineate the key
biological pathways that lead to Tamoxifen resistance.