WRITING A RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

Lecture 3.2
Dr. Mokhtar Ali
Outlines
What is an abstract?
A short, Self-contained, powerful summery of an article, paper or thesis.
Length between 150-300 words (not exceeding one page)
Layout: Usually on single paragraph; font size is different from main text.
Position : usually at the beginning of the paper , project or thesis

 An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review,

conference proceeding, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject
or discipline

 It is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's

purpose.

 An abstract acts as the point-of-entry for any given academic paper or

patent application.
Important points to consider
 An abstract is like a movie trailer. It offers a preview, highlights key points, and helps the
audience decide whether to view the entire work. 
 Abstracts are the pivot of a paper because many journal editorial boards screen
manuscripts only on the basis of the abstract.
 If your abstract doesn’t grab their attention and make a good first impression, there’s a
good chance your paper will be rejected at the outset.
 Moreover, even after your paper is published, your abstract will be the first, and possibly
only, the readers will access through electronic searches.
 They will only consider reading the rest of the manuscript if they find your abstract
interesting.
Important points to consider

 For studies in the humanities and social sciences, the abstract is typically descriptive.
That is, it describes the topic of research and its findings but usually doesn’t give specific
information about methods and results. These abstracts may also be seen in review
articles or conference proceedings.
 In scientific writing, abstracts are usually structured to describe the background,
methods, results, and conclusions, with or without subheadings.
Important points to consider
 If you need to write an abstract for an academic or scientific paper, don't panic! Your
abstract is simply a short, stand-alone summary of the work or paper that others can use
as an overview.

 An abstract describes what you do in your essay, whether it’s a scientific experiment or a
literary analysis paper.

 It should help your reader understand the paper and help people searching for this paper
decide whether it suits their purposes prior to reading.

 To write an abstract, finish your paper first, then type a summary that identifies the
purpose, problem, methods, results, and conclusion of your work. After you get the
details down, all that's left is to format it correctly.
Important Points to know
1. Begin writing the abstract after you have finished writing your paper.
2. Pick out the major objectives/hypotheses and conclusions from your Introduction and
Conclusion sections.
3. Select key sentences and phrases from your Methods section.
4. Identify the major results from your Results section.
5. Now, arrange the sentences and phrases selected in steps 2, 3, and 4 into a single
paragraph in the following sequence: Introduction, Methods, Results, and
Conclusions.
Important Points to know
6. Make sure that this paragraph does not contain
 New information that is not present in the paper
 Undefined abbreviations or group names
 A discussion of previous literature or reference citations
 Unnecessary details about the methods used
7. Remove all extra information (see step 6) and then link your sentences to ensure that
the information flows well, preferably in the following order: purpose; basic study design,
methodology and techniques used; major findings; summary of your interpretations,
conclusions, and implications.
Important Points to know
7. Confirm that there is consistency between the information presented in the abstract and in
the paper.
8. Ask a colleague to review your abstract and check if the purpose, aim, methods, and
conclusions of the study are clearly stated.
9. Check to see if the final abstract meets the guidelines of the target journal (word limit, type of
abstract, recommended subheadings, etc.).
What does a good abstract do?
Sparks interest in your project
Provides a concise description of your research project
States in a clear and simple way the main points of your
project
Stands alone
Targets your specific audience!
1
Write your paper first. 

Even though an abstract goes at the beginning of the work, it acts as a summary of your
entire paper. Rather than introducing your topic, it will be an overview of everything you
write about in your paper. Save writing your abstract for last, after you have already
finished your paper.
A thesis and an abstract are entirely different things. The thesis of a paper introduces the
main idea or question, while the abstract works to review the entirety of the paper,
including the methods and results.
Even if you think that you know what your paper is going to be about, always save the
abstract for last. You will be able to give a much more accurate summary if you do just
that - summarize what you've already written.
2
Review and understand any requirements for writing your abstract. 

The paper you’re writing probably has specific guidelines and requirements,
whether it’s for publication in a journal, submission in a class, or part of a work
project.
Before you start writing, refer to the rules or guidelines you were presented with
to identify important issues to keep in mind.
Is there a maximum or minimum length?
Are there style requirements?
Are you writing for an instructor or a publication?
3 Who should read it? 

Abstracts are written to help readers find your work. For example, in scientific journals,
abstracts allow readers to quickly decide whether the research discussed is relevant to
their own interests.
 Abstracts also help your readers get at your main argument quickly.
 Keep the needs of your readers in mind as you write the abstract.
 Will other academics in your field read this abstract?
 Should it be accessible to a lay reader or somebody from another field?
4 Determine the type of abstract you must write. 
Although all abstracts accomplish essentially the same goal, there are two primary styles of
abstract: descriptive and informative. You may have been assigned a specific style, but if you
weren’t, you will have to determine which is right for you.
Informative abstracts are used for much longer and technical research while descriptive abstracts
are best for shorter papers.
 Descriptive abstracts explain the purpose, goal, and methods of your research but leave out
the results section. These are typically only 100-200 words.
 Informative abstracts are like a condensed version of your paper, giving an overview of
everything in your research including the results. These are much longer than descriptive
abstracts, and can be anywhere from a single paragraph to a whole page long.
4 Determine the type of abstract you must write. 

The basic information included in both styles of abstract is the same, with the main
difference being that the results are only included in an informative abstract, and
an informative abstract is much longer than a descriptive one.
A critical abstract is not often used, but it may be required in some courses. A
critical abstract accomplishes the same goals as the other types of abstract, but will
also relate the study or work being discussed to the writer’s own research. It may
critique the research design or methods.
 1 Identify your purpose. 
You're writing about a correlation between lack of lunches in schools and poor grades. So
what? Why does this matter?

Start off your descriptive abstract by considering the following questions:

 Why did you decide to do this study or project?
 How did you conduct your research?
 What did you find?
 Why is this research and your findings important?
 Why should someone read your entire essay?

The reader wants to know why your research is important, and what the purpose of it is.
ABSTRACT
Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) has the potential to provide a good compromise in cost, efficiency,
and emission when used in Internal Combustion (I.C.) engines. Due to its higher octane
number, engine efficiency can be increased through higher compression ratios. It also
produces lower emission of pollutants and available in abundance in many parts of the world.
This thesis presents the techno-economic analysis of LPG as road vehicles fuel alternative in
comparison with gasoline for public transportation in Yemen. The techno-economic analysis
is considered running cost, break-even point (BEP) distance, net present value (NPV), internal
rate of return (IRR), payback period (PP), and sensitivity analysis. This analysis indicates that
the BEP distance of public transportation vehicles are approximating at 2484 Km for the
current traditional method in TAIZ and 7121 km compared to gasoline for the global 1 st
generation method km compared to gasoline. Meanwhile, the result of the investment
analysis shows that the investment feasibility indicators which include NPV, IRR, and PP show
the investment was feasible but the investment is sensitive to fuel cost ratio between LPG and
gasoline. also the thesis attempts to briefly review aspects of LPG use in I.C. Engines from
resources, metering, storage, combustion, emission, and efficiency points of view.
Abstract
Recently the need of energy storage has received an increasing attention and become rapidly
important for Yemeni people. The results of our questionnaire in the three major cities (Sana’a, Aden,
and Taiz) shows that 65% of Yemeni people use lead acid batteries (LABs) with life span of 1.6 years
and 55% of them sells their exhausted LABs to battery retailers, 28% to scrapped batteries traders,
and 17% keep them in their houses. LABs are a complex industrial product, comprised by many
different materials including metallic lead, lead oxide, polypropylene, and sulfuric acid and about 95-
98 % of the various components of them can be recovered. The recycling of exhausted LABs are a
significant theme, not only for the environment conservation, but also for reusing of valuable
materials. Nowadays, approximately 50% of the total world lead production comes from lead
secondary smelting. Whereas the battery manufacturing industry depends on lead consumption for
greater than 80% of global consumption, while two-third of LABs weight is lead metal, which is very
expensive metal and can be recovered from exhausted LABs at relatively low energy requirements;
approximately 40% of the primary lead production requirements. The lead plates can be
reconditioned to new battery standards, the polypropylene plastic box can be melted and extruded to
produce plastic pellets and the sulfuric acid is neutralized and discharged. The feasibility study of this
research estimates the expenditures required to constructing a recycling facility for exhausted LABs.
The investment capital money for production machinery, pre-engineered steel building, management
building and 150m × 150m land is 1,511,944$, and the operational capital money for the first year is
10,621,058$
. The annual demand of Yemen for LABs is approximately 700,000 LABs, and the feasibility study
predict the sales for the first year to be 15% which is 105,000 LABs, the operational cost is estimated
to produce 1 ton of lead is1,730$ whereas the importing cost of 1 ton of lead is 2,485$ without the
shipping cost, the break-even point for the first year is estimated to be 14,286 LABs, the annual profit
percentage for the first year is 10%, and the return of investment is 2.14 years. And hence recycling
exhausted LABs is an attractive business idea for many entrepreneurs.
 
ABSTRACT
Solid waste materials disposal in the surrounding environment is a global threatening
issue. Researches in predicting methods to re-use or recycle the wastes are universally
encouraged and supported. This project work aims to study the use of waste PET mineral
water bottles (in a fiber or powder form) and/or fly ash (by-product of coal IC-engines fuel)
as a partial replacement for cement/sand in concrete matrix. The strength of the concrete
blocks reinforced at different concentrations, sizes and shapes of waste PET/fly ash was
effectively studied. The post consumed waste mineral water plastic PET bottles are
shredded into fibers or particles of specific sizes and shapes. Several design concrete mixes
with different percentages of waste plastic fibers are casted into desire shape and size as
per requirement of the tests which done at Al-Saeed company for manufacturing concrete
and contracting, for more information about this company, see Appendix A. For the first
time, this study investigated a mixture of waste PET/fly ash at different ratios for concrete
reinforcement. Furthermore, the results were elucidated for the replacement of cement
and again for the replacement of sand in the concrete matrix, which are not studied
together in previous studies. The results also showed a considerable decrease in concrete
weight which is an important parameter for construction engineering. Finally, an economic
feasibility study to construct a project based on the partial replacement of solid waste in
concrete was also systematically investigated. We would like to point out that in this
research we have used some software programs, Excel in scheduling and organizing data in
the fourth chapter and for more information, you can refer to Appendix B. Origin program
for graphing and analyzing statistical data used for good represent of curves to find out
more, check Appendix C. During different steps of this projects, we have well matched with
the concepts of Industrial Engineering, which we are gained during the 5-year course.
2 Explain the problem at hand. 
Abstracts state the “problem” behind your work.
Think of this as the specific issue that your research or project addresses.
You can sometimes combine the problem with your motivation, but it is best to be clear and
separate the two.

What problem is your research trying to better understand or solve?

What is the scope of your study - a general problem, or something specific?
What is your main claim or argument?
3 Explain your methods. 

Motivation - check. Problem - check. Methods?

Now is the part where you give an overview of how you accomplished your study. If you did your
own work, include a description of it here.
If you reviewed the work of others, it can be briefly explained.

 Discuss your own research including the variables and your approach.
 Describe the evidence you have to support your claim
 Give an overview of your most important sources.
4 Describe your results (informative abstract only). 

This is where you begin to differentiate your abstract between a descriptive and an informative
abstract.
In an informative abstract, you will be asked to provide the results of your study.

• What is it that you found?

• What answer did you reach from your research or study?
• Was your hypothesis or argument supported?
• What are the general findings?
5 Give your conclusion. 
This should finish up your summary and give closure to your abstract.
In it, address the meaning of your findings as well as the importance of your overall paper.

This format of having a conclusion can be used in both descriptive and informative abstracts,
but you will only address the following questions in an informative abstract.

• What are the implications of your work?

• Are your results general or very specific?
1 Keep it in order. 

There are specific questions your abstract must provide answers for, but the
answers must be kept in order as well.
Ideally, it should mimic the overall format of your essay, with a general
‘introduction, ‘body,’ and ‘conclusion.’
Many journals have specific style guides for abstracts.
If you’ve been given a set of rules or guidelines, follow them to the letter.
2 Provide helpful information. 

An abstract should provide a helpful explanation of your paper and your research. Word your abstract
so that the reader knows exactly what you’re talking about, and isn’t left hanging with ambiguous
references or phrases.
Avoid using direct acronyms or abbreviations in the abstract, as these will need to be explained in
order to make sense to the reader. That uses up precious writing room, and should generally be
avoided.
If your topic is about something well-known enough, you can reference the names of people or places
that your paper focuses on.
Don’t include tables, figures, sources, or long quotations in your abstract. These take up too
much room and usually aren’t what your readers want from an abstract anyway.
3 Write it from scratch. 
Your abstract is a summary, yes, but it should be written completely separate from your
paper.

Don't copy and paste direct quotes from yourself, and avoid simply paraphrasing your
own sentences from elsewhere in your writing.

Write your abstract using completely new vocabulary and phrases to keep it interesting
and redundancy-free.
4 Use key phrases and words. 
If your abstract is to be published in a journal, you want people to be able to find it easily.
In order to do so, readers will search for certain queries on online databases in hopes that
papers, like yours, will show up.
Try to use 5-10 important words or phrases key to your research in your abstract.

For example, if you’re writing a paper on the cultural differences in perceptions of

schizophrenia, be sure to use words like “schizophrenia,” “cross-cultural,” “culture-
bound,” “mental illness,” and “societal acceptance.” These might be search terms people
use when looking for a paper on your subject.
5 Use real information. 

You want to draw people in with your abstract; it is the hook that will encourage
them to continue reading your paper.
However, do not reference ideas or studies that you don’t include in your paper in
order to do this.

Citing material that you don’t use in your work will mislead readers and ultimately
lower your viewership.
6 Avoid being too specific. 

An abstract is a summary, and as such should not refer to specific points of your
research other than possibly names or locations.

You should not need to explain or define any terms in your abstract, a reference is all
that is needed.
Avoid being too explicit in your summary and stick to a very broad overview of your
work.

Make sure to avoid jargon. This specialized vocabulary may not be understood by
general readers in your area and can cause confusion.
7 Be sure to do basic revisions. 
The abstract is a piece of writing that, like any other, should be revised
before being completed.

Check it over for grammatical and spelling errors and make sure it is
formatted properly.
8 Get feedback from someone. 
Having someone else read your abstract is a great way for you to know whether you’ve summarized
your research well.
Try to find someone who doesn’t know everything about your project. Ask him or her to read your
abstract and then tell you what s/he understood from it. This will let you know whether you’ve
adequately communicated your key points in a clear manner.

Consulting with your professor, a colleague in your field, or a tutor or writing center consultant can be
very helpful.
If you have these resources available to you, use them!

Asking for assistance can also let you know about any conventions in your field.
For example, it is very common to use the passive voice (“experiments were performed”) in the
sciences.