How to write a useful abstract

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How to write a useful abstract

• By Janis Ramey
• Presented by William Burgess

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Why write Abstracts?

• With our ever increasing need for quick access to
  information, useful abstracts are more important
  than ever. Think of those long articles you've
  seen pop up on the internet. Wouldn't you
  appreciate it if the first few lines were a true
  abstract of the article so you'd know whether you
  should wait for the rest of it to load? How about
  when you look something up in a library catalog.
  A useful abstract helps you decide if you need to
  retrieve the article or book, but a poor abstract
  leaves you wondering.

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Easy Guide to Abstracts

• Write a topic sentence
• Write two or three supporting sentences
• Tie everything together with logical order and
  good transition
• These three simple steps will help you make good
  abstracts

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Writing a Topic Sentence

• When you finished the article, try and think
  about its major idea or result.
• Think about what the reader wants from this
  document.
• Write one sentence describing these ideas.
• This is your topic sentence.

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Topic Sentence (cont)

• Look for summaries or conclusions for help with
  your topic sentence
• Do not depend on the title of the document
• Be specific, make the topic sentence says
  something about the article.

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Supporting Sentences

• Limit yourself to two or three supporting
  sentences, highlighting two or three main ideas
  in the article
• Answer the questions Who? What? Where? When?
  Why? How? And How much?
• Use details, statistics and/or results to backup
  your topic sentence

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Logic and Transition

• Arrange supporting sentences in a logical
  sequence
• Add whatever transition is needed to link the
  supporting sentences together
• If needed rewrite the sentences to improve the
  connections between them

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Tips and Tricks

• Write the abstract after the document is written
• Create a list of ideas about the document, then
  order them according to importance, use this list
  to help you create your topic and supporting
  sentences
• If you cant write a topic sentence, write the
  supporting ones first, and the topic sentence
  will come to you

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Tips and Tricks

• Write for an intelligent reader, who has little
  or no knowledge of the article or its field
• Choose words carefully, Acronyms and technical
  jargon can confuse a reader
• Define the scope of the article
• Include the name of the client
• Reread your abstract after a few days and cross
  out any un-needed information

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The Result

• Now you have an abstract that is truly a digest
  of the material and will probably be of some use
  to a reader. And, surprisingly, this technique
  works for documents of any length from a couple
  of pages up to multi-volumes. It also works for
  any kind of document including letters, reports,
  articles, manuals, books, speeches, scripts, and
  just about anything else you have to write.