UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA Y TECNOLÓGICA DE COLOMBIA

VICERRECTORÍA ACADÉMICA
INSTITUTO INTERNACIONAL DE IDIOMAS
Guía para el desarrollo de clases virtuales

SUBJECT GUIDE 03 TOPIC GUIDE LENGTH:

English VI Weeks 6-7 Preparation on how to write an abstract. 8 HOURS
December 06-17
Teacher’s name: Jairo Alonso Espinosa Vargas

Objectives:
● To practice on academic writing for professional development.

● To learn about the writing of an abstract, its structure, and characteristics through practice.

PRESENTATION:
Dear student, by carrying out this guide you will be supported. Feel free to clear up any doubts that you may
have during the process.

INITIAL REFLECTION
First of all, in this guide you will explore the main characteristics of an academic abstract and learn
about the requirements to write the best one. As a result, you will be able to build an abstract step by
step, understanding every component of it.

Use your previous knowledge to answer the following questions, discuss your ideas with the teacher.
1. What is an abstract?
2. Have you ever read an abstract? Explain.
3. Have you ever written one? Explain.
4. Why is it important to know how to write an abstract?
5. Do you know anything about the way an abstract should be written?
6. What are the main abstract features?

COGNITIVE

How to Write an Abstract for Your Paper

An abstract is a self-contained summary of a larger work, such as research and scientific papers or
general academic papers. Usually situated at the beginning of such works, the abstract is meant to
“preview” the bigger document. This helps readers and other researchers find what they’re looking for
and understand the magnitude of what’s discussed.

Like the trailer for a movie, an abstract can determine whether or not someone becomes interested in
your work. Aside from enticing readers, abstracts are also useful organizational tools that help other
researchers and academics find papers relevant to their work.

Because of their specific requirements, it’s best to know a little about how to write an abstract before
doing it. This guide explains the basics of writing an abstract for beginners, including what to put in
them and some expert tips on writing them.
 What’s the purpose of an abstract?
The main purpose of an abstract is to help people decide whether or not to read the entire academic
paper. After all, titles can be misleading and don’t get into specifics like methodology or results.
Imagine paying for and downloading a hundred-page dissertation on what you believe is relevant to
your research on the Caucasus region—only to find out it’s about the other Georgia.

Likewise, abstracts can encourage financial support for grant proposals and fundraising. If you lack the
funding for your research, your proposal abstract would outline the costs and benefits of your project.
This way, potential investors could make an informed decision, or jump to the relevant section of your
proposal to see the details.

Abstracts are also incredibly useful for indexing. They make it easier for researchers to find precisely
what they need without wasting time skimming actual papers. And because abstracts sometimes touch
on the results of a paper, researchers and students can see right away if the paper can be used as
evidence or a citation to support their own theses.

Nowadays, abstracts are also important for search engine optimization (SEO)—namely, for getting
digital copies of your paper to appear in search engine results. If someone Googles the words used in
your abstract, the link to your paper will appear higher in the search results, making it more likely to
get clicks.

How long should an abstract be?

Abstracts are typically 100–250 words and comprise one or two paragraphs. However, more complex
papers require more complex abstracts, so you may need to stretch it out to cover everything. It’s not
uncommon to see abstracts that fill an entire page, especially in advanced scientific works.

When do you need to write an abstract?

Abstracts are only for lengthy, often complicated texts, as with scientific and research papers. Similar
academic papers—including doctorate dissertations, master’s theses, or elaborate literary criticisms—
may also demand them as well. If you’re learning how to write a thesis paper for college, you’ll want to
know how to write an abstract, too.

Specifically, most scientific journals and grant proposals require an abstract for submissions.
Conference papers often involve them as well, as do book proposals and other fundraising endeavors.
However, most writing, in particular casual and creative writing, doesn’t need an abstract.

Types of abstracts

There are two main types of abstracts: informative and descriptive. Most abstracts fall into the
informative category, with descriptive abstracts reserved for less formal papers.

Informative abstracts
Informative abstracts discuss all the need-to-know details of your paper: purpose, method, scope,
results, and conclusion. They’re the go-to format for scientific and research papers. Informative
abstracts attempt to outline the entire paper without going into specifics. They’re written for quick
reference, favor efficiency over style, and tend to lack personality.
Descriptive abstracts
Descriptive abstracts are a little more personable and focus more on enticing readers. They don’t care
as much for data and details, and instead read more like overviews that don’t give too much away.
Think of descriptive abstracts like synopses on the back of a book. Because they don’t delve too deep,
descriptive abstracts are shorter than informative abstracts, closer to 100 words, and in a single
paragraph. In particular, they don’t cover areas like results or conclusions — you have to read the
paper to satisfy your curiosity.

Since they’re so informal, descriptive abstracts are more at home in artistic criticisms and entertaining
papers than in scientific articles.

Informative Abstract Example

Example:

The Internet of Things Provides Emerging Business Opportunities

Purpose: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new phenomenon, so there is a lack of public and scientific
understanding of what IoT is and what commercial opportunities it can offer for large companies and sole
entrepreneurs. The article aims to stimulate creativity, thinking, and entrepreneurship in terms of IoT.

Methods: This article consists of three parts. In the first part, IoT is described as a wide socio-technical
phenomenon. Second, this article suggests two approaches for establishing new business models using IoT: a
disruptive and a sustainable approach. Third, the article concludes with a reflection on the time to which the
future of IoT can be possibly predicted.

Scope: The article discusses different elements that comprise IoT in the physical, technological, and
socioeconomic environments.

Results: This discussion shows the limitations of the new business models approach that was examined in this
article and suggests guidelines on the more efficient ways of using this approach.

Conclusions: The attempt to predict the future can prepare companies for various threats and opportunities. The
envisioned outcomes and scenarios can help the entrepreneurs make the correct decisions for their businesses’
success.

Descriptive Abstract Example

Example:

Exploring the Boundaries of the Social Sciences

Purpose: The concept of research boundaries has been critical in history, anthropology, sociology, social
psychology, political science, and sociology. This article intends to explore this problem and analyze the
relational processes hindered by the boundaries.

Methods: It addresses relatable processes in various research institutions and social locations. It also
investigates the directions for further development, with a focus on the dependence between symbolic and
social boundaries, their cultural mechanisms, hybridity and difference, and group classifications.

Scope: The article analyzes several works on social identity; class, ethnic, and gender inequality; professions and
science; and national identities, communities, and territorial boundaries.

What to include in an abstract

As part of a formal document, informative abstracts adhere to more scientific and data-based structures. Like
the paper itself, abstracts should include all of the IMRaD elements: Introduction, Methods, Results, and
Discussion.

This handy acronym is a great way to remember what parts to include in your abstract. There are some other
areas you might need as well, which we also explain at the end.

Introduction

The beginning of your abstract should provide a broad overview of the entire project, just like the thesis
statement. You can also use this section of your abstract to write out your hypothesis or research question.

In the one or two sentences at the top, you want to disclose the purpose of your paper, such as what problem it
attempts to solve and why the reader should be interested. You’ll also need to explain the context around it,
including any historical references.

Methods

This section covers the methodology of your research, or how you collected the data. This is crucial for verifying
the credibility of your paper — abstracts with no methodology or suspicious methods won’t be taken seriously
by the scientific community.

If you’re using original research, you should disclose which analytical methods you used to collect your data,
including descriptions of instruments, software, or participants. If you’re expounding on previous data, this is a
good place to cite which data and from where to avoid plagiarism.

Results

For informative abstracts, it’s okay to “give away the ending.” In one or two sentences, summarize the results of
your paper and the conclusive outcome. Remember that the goal of most abstracts is to inform, not entice, so
mentioning your results here can help others better classify and categorize your paper.

This is often the biggest section of your abstract. It involves most of the concrete details surrounding your paper,
so don’t be afraid to give it an extra sentence or two compared to the others.

Discussion

The discussion section explains the ultimate conclusion and its ramifications. Based on the data and
examination, what can we take away from this paper? The discussion section often goes beyond the scope of
the project itself, including the implications of the research or what it adds to its field as a whole.

Other inclusions

Aside from the IMRaD aspects, your abstract may require some of the following areas:

Keywords — Like hashtags for research papers, keywords list out the topics discussed in your paper so
interested people can find it more easily, especially with online formats. The APA format (explained below) has
specific requirements for listing keywords, so double-check there before listing yours.

Ethical concerns — If your research deals with ethically gray areas, i.e., testing on animals, you may want to
point out any concerns here, or issue reassurances.

Consequences — If your research disproves or challenges a popular theory or belief, it’s good to mention that in
the abstract — especially if you have new evidence to back it up.
Conflicts of Interest/Disclosures — Although different forums have different rules on disclosing conflicts of
interests, it’s generally best to mention them in your abstract. For example, maybe you received funding from a
biased party.

If you’re ever in doubt about what to include in your abstract, just remember that it should act as a succinct
summary of your entire paper. Include all the relevant points, but only the highlights.

APA format
The American Psychological Association (APA) has specific guidelines for their papers in the interest
of consistency. Here’s what the 7th edition Publication Manual has to say about formatting
abstracts:

● Double-space your text.

● Set page margins at 1 inch (2.54 cm).

● Write the word “Abstract” at the top of the page, centered and in a bold font.

● Don’t indent the first line.

● Keep your abstract under 250 words.

● Include a running header and page numbers on all pages, including the abstract.

Abstract keywords have their own particular guidelines as well:

● Label the section as “Keywords:” with italics.

● Indent the first line at 0.5 inches, but leave subsequent lines as is.

● Write your keywords on the same line as the label.

● Use lower-case letters.

● Use commas, but not conjunctions.

Structured abstracts

Structured abstracts are a relatively new format for scientific papers, originating in the late 1980s.
Basically, you just separate your abstract into smaller subsections — typically based on the IMRaD
categories — and label them accordingly.

The idea is to enhance scannability; for example, if readers are only interested in the methodology,
they can skip right to the methodology. The actual writing of structured abstracts, though, is more-or-
less the same as traditional ones.

Unstructured abstracts are still the convention, though, so double-check beforehand to see which one
is preferred.

PRACTICE
Below is an example of an abstract. Using the information above, try to identify the corresponding parts of
the abstract below, use the following colors to identify them.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE

METHODS
RESULTS
CONCLUSION

Study skills and students’ satisfaction with their performance positively affect their academic achievement. The
current research was carried out to investigate the correlation of study skills with academic achievement among
 the medical and pharmacy students in 2013. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 148 students of
basic medical sciences and pharmacy through convenience sampling. Data were collected by a valid and reliable
questionnaire, consisting of two sections: Demographic information and questions about daily study hours,
study skills in six domains, and students’ satisfaction with study skills. Collected data sets were analyzed by SPSS-
16 software. In total, 10.9% of students were reported to have favorable study skills. The minimum score was
found for preparation for the examination domain. Also, a significantly positive correlation was observed
between students’ study skills and their Grade Point Average (GPA) of the previous term (P=0.001, r=0.269) and
satisfaction with study skills (P=0.001, r=0.493). The findings indicated that students’ study skills need to be
improved. Given the significant relationship between study skills and GPA, as an index of academic achievement,
and satisfaction, it is necessary to promote the students’ study skills. These skills are suggested to be reinforced,
with more emphasis on weaker domains.”

Evaluative Task - Production:

In this section, we are going to see how much you have learned!

Below you find an article about engineering. The original article comes with its own abstract, but I would like
you to write your own abstract after reading the article. Please remember to include all the important parts of
an abstract, which are listed above. Don’t worry if you have a tough time completing the activity, practice makes
perfect and that is what we are here for: to practice!

Important!
 Send your abstract via email, Moodle or WhatsApp (only to the one you prefer)
 DO NOT FORGET to include your personal information (Name, Code, Course and English group)
 Due date: December 17, 2021.
 Tasks submitted after the due date are not going to be taken into account.

Introduction

Images shape the way individuals view the world, thus, understanding the image students have of engineers and engineering is
extremely important. The public has an incomplete understanding of engineers and engineering as a profession [1, 2]. In
discussions about the public’s understanding of engineers, many reference the “conventional” stereotype of engineers as train
operators [3, 4]. Though this stereotype may exist among students as well as the public, few investigations to date have focused
on students’ ideas about engineers and engineering. The recent introduction of engineering into the K-12 curriculum in
Massachusetts has increased interest among educators in assessing students’ knowledge of engineering. Though we are
surrounded by the products of engineering in our everyday lives, students often don’t understand what engineers do [2]. Few
students meet working engineers, thus students’ ideas about engineering are formed from other sources, such as the media. In
his review of the depiction of engineering in popular culture, Vaughan outlined the degeneration of the image of the engineer in
modern society from the heroes depicted in books such as Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island to the modern-day caricatures in
Revenge of the Nerds [5]. The depiction of engineering in the media is unstable and can vary widely depending on what the
current headlines say about emerging technologies.

The image of engineering is also negatively affected by its close association with science [4]. Thus, it is useful to look at the
research in science for information on potential reactions to engineering. Girls and boys develop ideas about science and who is
qualified to be a scientist early in their education, often based largely on messages they receive outside of the school walls [6]. In
order to effectively address students’ ideas about science, it is important to understand the nature of those ideas [7, 8, 9].
Similarly, in order to address students’ ideas about engineering, it is important to understand what ideas students have about
engineering.

The Impact of Images

Images are a powerful form of communication, thus exploring and understanding images has important theoretical and
practical implications. Humans create images in order to make sense of their everyday experiences [10]. A commonly accepted
image can become metaphorical, equating one concept with another, such as “nerd” and “engineer”. Once these images
become part of a generally accepted vocabulary of popular culture, they transcend their origins.

While images always maintain some connection to people, places, things, or events, their generative potential in a sense gives
them a life of their own, so that we not only create images, but are also shaped by them. [11] (p. 21)

Though the concepts are theoretical, the implications are concrete. The messages students gather from years of socialization
influence their attitudes about science and math, their self-efficacy beliefs, their choice of coursework, and even their future
career plans. Girls begin to form negative attitudes about their abilities in science, especially physical science, as early as second
grade [12]. Sex role stereotypes have negative impacts for both men and women. Men who choose non traditional careers in
nursing and elementary school teaching often are regarded with a critical eye. Similarly, women who continue onto careers in
non-traditional fields such as science and engineering are negatively stigmatized [13]. A student who is interested in engineering
but does not want to be considered a nerd may shy away from expressing her interest to avoid the negative association. Images
associated with a field become part of the identity of the people within that field.

The “Draw a Scientist Test” (DAST) has been widely used to assess students’ attitudes about scientists [7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. To help assess students’ ideas about engineering before intervention, we are
developing a “Draw an Engineer Test” (DAET). The purpose of the survey is to have students describe their knowledge about
engineers and engineering through written and drawn responses. The questionnaire contains the following five questions on one
page: “In your own words, what is engineering?”, “What does an engineer do?”, “Draw a picture of an engineer at work.”

Methods

Teachers who work with the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach at Tufts University were asked to have their students
fill out the one page questionnaire as part of an in-class assignment. Teachers were asked to do this at the beginning of the
school year, preferably before they began any unit on engineering. Though specific information on ethnicity and socioeconomic
status was not collected as part of this study, demographic information about the participating schools indicate that this
population of students represent a wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.

Students were given 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Respondents were encouraged to write what they thought
about engineering and not be concerned about whether their thoughts were correct. Teachers had the option to have a class
discussion about engineering after the questionnaires were collected.

Written responses to questionnaires were entered into a Microsoft Access database. Pictures were translated into words by the
researchers. All responses to the question were reviewed, and recurring themes were developed into codes. These codes were
associated with each response, and queried for basic tallies. Tallies were translated into percentages using Microsoft Excel.

Discussion

The results of this pilot study indicate that the students in this study have preconceived ideas about engineers and engineering.
Many students, especially younger students, think that engineers use tools to build buildings and fix car engines. Some of the
students' written responses indicate that this could be a vocabulary problem. When asked to describe what an engineer does,
some students wrote statements such as “Engineer has the word engine in it, so I guess engineers must work with engines”.
Children seem to equate engines with car engines, thus they relate engineers with car mechanics. Similarly, the word
“mechanic” is similar to “mechanical engineer”. Older students are more likely to think that engineers are involved in designing
things such as buildings or machines. When gender characteristics are included in students’ drawings, they are male
characteristics, indicating that students think of engineers as men. The traditional association of engineers with trains was not
prevalent in this sample of students.

Student’s images and stereotypes about engineers and engineering are important, since perceptions of careers are closely
linked to whether students feel they can enter into those careers. The image that that all computer science majors are narrowly
focused hackers, an image Margolis and Fisher refer to as “geek mythology”, discourages students from studying computer
science [32, 33]. The image of engineering as a “male” profession supports the idea that women cannot “do engineering” [4];
thus, female students are less likely to consider engineering as a career [34]. Perception of ability is important; among college
engineering majors, a student’s perception of her ability plays a more important role in determining persistence in the major
than her actual ability [35]. Clearly, though stereotypes and perceptions are “just beliefs”, they are powerful beliefs, and are
worthy of investigation and analysis.

WEBOGRAPHY 200 PALABRAS

Sources:

http://stelar.edc.org/publications/draw-engineer-test-daet-development-tool-investigate-students%E2%80%99-ideas-about-
engineers

Writing an abstract Understanding and developing abstracts. The University of Melbourne. Available on:
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/471274/Writing_an_Abstract_Update_051112.pdf

How to Write an Abstract for Your Paper https://www.grammarly.com/blog/write-anabstract/?

gclid=CjwKCAjw64eJBhAGEiwABr9o2GnnrPJM4agHFQbgaHVs3MVM-
clFhMMGLSEKRJ8iChg3PTWSN76EjRoCF4UQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Forero, F. E.,Serrano, P, A., & Almanza, P, J. (2014). Efecto de Enmiendas Orgánicas y Fertilización Química en la Producción de
Maíz (Zea Mays L.) Revista Cultura Científica. No. 12
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide_writingAnAbstract.pdf

http://services.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/471274/Writing_an_Abstract_Update_051112.pdf