ENGR3711 & 9721 – Control Systems

Abstract
russell.brinkworth@flinders.edu.au
The object of this assignment is to read the paper you are assigned and replace the missing title,
abstract and index terms with your own. It is critical that you do this assignment on the paper you
are assigned and only on that paper. Do not attempt to locate the original paper to get the authors
title, abstract or keywords. If you have difficulty with some of the more technical elements of the
paper (e.g. the maths) do not worry, it is only the overall concepts and main findings that are
required to be captured in this assignment.

Marking Scheme:
Title (3 marks)
Abstract (15 marks)
- Background (3 marks)
- Purpose (3 marks)
- Methods (3 marks)
- Results (3 marks)
- Conclusion (3 marks)
Index Terms (2 marks)

Tips:
Title – Do not write formula, use jargon words or any but the most general abbreviations or
acronyms. Make the title short, interesting and informative. Good titles are 5 to 10 words and
should not exceed 20 words. Avoid vague titles or ones that mislead or confuse the reader into
believing the report delivers anymore than it actually does. Sensational newspaper headlines or
‘click-bait’ have no place as academic or technical titles.

Abstract – The abstract should be a single paragraph of no more than 250 words and contain five
distinct sections (without headings).
• First should be a background that sets the context for the project that was undertaken.
• Next should be the purpose of the work, as in why it was undertaken and/or what the work
was trying to show.
• The key methodology or approach that was followed should be third.
• The main results of the work should then be briefly outlined.
• Finally, the conclusion should extrapolate where the project could go to next if it were to
continue or how the findings could be put to the best use.
You will need to have a good grasp of every element in the paper to write an abstract that covers all
the required information in an efficient and informative way.

Index Terms – key words or phrases that describe important elements of the paper or areas it
covers. Use a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6. ‘Undergraduate university education’ would be
one index term even though it is 3 words. Index terms are used to increase the ability for people to
find a particular paper when searching for it; as such do not include words that are in the title as
these terms would already be associated with the paper. While it is not necessary to use only words
from this list some suggested keywords can be found at this link
https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/ieee-taxonomy.pdf.
Context:
The abstract encapsulates the major portions of the report and addresses an audience that might
not read the rest of the document. It may be read both by engineers looking for data and by non-
engineers, managers who will make crucial decisions about engineering projects. The abstract
provides a concise overview of the work. It should contain the highlights of the major parts of the
report, including the: background, objective, results, conclusions / recommendations. No fine
details should be included. The information must be communicated in such a way that the reader
can understand what was done, and what the outcome was, without having to read the rest of the
report. The abstract should be written completely in textual form—that is, in sentences. It should
not include equations or references to anything else in the report. It should read smoothly and
coherently, not like a collection of sentences from different parts of the report. When the report
describes results from several short experiments, the abstract should not resemble several small
abstracts of the individual experiments, but must provide smooth transitions between them.

In order to help readers deal with the very large number of reports and articles that are published,
abstracts are often extracted from reports and placed in catalogues or indexes that are available in
print and on computer data bases. A reader searches these indexes, looking for reports of interest
and reading the abstracts. At this time, the reader has no access to the rest of the report. The
abstract therefore must be a stand-alone section that tells the reader whether or not the report is
worth acquiring. As such a boring or misleading abstract must be avoided. Do not make it hard for
the reader to understand the main finding(s) of the report and do not oversell the findings or claim
more than the report actually delivers.

Remember: abstracts are not the academic equivalent of a movie trailer. While they should inform
the reader about what is covered in the main paper/report they should not overhype it or be
misleading in any way, and they most certainly should not start with the words “In a world
where…”. Also, there is no problem dropping spoilers within an abstract and ‘twist endings’ should
be avoided.

Warning:
Sourcing the original abstract and title could unduly influence your work. Furthermore, it is very
obvious. If you do this it will be treated as plagiarism, you will receive a mark of 0 and could be
reported for a breach of academic integrity.