Abstract writing
An abstract is a brief section—rarely more than six or eight lines long—the purpose of which is to tell the reader what points are covered in some piece of writing without attempting to tell him what is said about them. It may be written for a report or various other kinds of writing. If it is written as a section of a report, it is one of the first parts that a reader encounters. It is an independent element rather than an integral part of the body. Such abstracts sometimes appear by themselves in publications devoted entirely to abstracts of material in some particular field.
1.1. types of abstracts
Abstracts can be divided into descriptive abstracts and informative abstracts.
1.1.1 Descriptive abstracts
A descriptive abstract merely describes what the report is about. It does not give any specific information about the problem, method, results, or conclusions. Such an abstract is not very useful to many readers since it lacks the specific information which would tell them: (i) what they need to know about the article and its results or (ii) if they really need to get the article to inspect its contents more closely.
Sample 1
CONTACT PROBLEMS IN THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF ELASTICITY
By G.M Gladwell
This article presents an account of contact problems in the classical theory of elasticity. It starts from fundamentals and aims to provide the reader with information on recent developments on this subject that he will need to widen his horizon of contact problems.
经典弹性理论中的接触问题
作者: G. M. 格拉德威尔
本文论述经典弹性理论中的接触问题。它从基本原理着手，给读者提供这门学科方面新近取得进展的情况，使其得以扩大有关接触问题的知识面。
1.1.2 informative abstracts
An informative abstract is a more useful type of abstract, which gives as much of the important particular information as can be crammed into the word limit. It gives some specific information about the problem, method, results, or conclusions. It also gives readers specific information which would tell them: (i) what they need to know about the article and its results or (ii) if they really need to get the article to inspect its contents more closely.
Sample 2
This paper explores the history of one company and its bid for survival in the rapidly changing world of today.
It examines the plastics industry in America and the position of the company within it, detailing the growth of the company over the past 50 years and the expansion of the product range and facilities to the present time.
The philosophy of management is explained and related to other industrialized countries. Consideration is given to possible future trends and the direction the company should now take in the light of world and local developments.
The problems are discussed under the following six headings:
1. Background
2. History
3. Decisions
4. Reasons
5. Current position
6. The future
The paper concludes that a successful company cannot confine itself to its standard products; it should show its willingness to accept more difficult products.
1.2 Suggestions on writing abstracts
While writing, the writer should pay much attention to the following points:
1) An abstract consists of three parts:
（1） problem statements, usually one sentence
（2） analytical or design technique used for testing, etc.
（3） the principle result may be a theoretical finding, a new design, or a recommended course of action, etc.
2) The present tense, the past tense and the present perfect tense are often used in writing an abstract. Also the third person should be used in writing an abstract.
3) Useful expressions:
The following expressions are often used in the first part of an abstract.
(1) The author tells about
The writer + describes N-phrase
The paper explores
looks at
deals with
refers to
(2) The purpose of this paper is to V
The primary goal of this research is …
An investigation was designed to V
A brief presentation of … is given …
The concept of … is used to determine…
In this paper, we aim at…
Our goal has been to provide…
The following expressions are often used in the second part of an abstract.
The method used in our study is known as….
The technique we applied is referred to as….
The test equipment which was used consist of…
This formula is verified by …
The following expressions are often used in the last part of an abstract.
(1) It is found that
The author concludes that +S + V…
The paper concludes
In conclusion, we state that…
In summing up it may be stated that….
As a result of our experiments, we conclude that…
Our work involving studies of …prove to be encouraging.
(2) It is seen from Fig. 4 that…
Fig. 4 indicates/shows/provides that…
The results are given in Fig. 4
The methods are shown in Fig. 5.
(3) It is suggested
It is recommended + that + S + V
The paper suggests
The results suggest/show that…
It is recommended that …
An abstract
This article presents an account of Americans’ values on intellect. It starts from how Americans think of their school education and also cites many people’ views on pervasive anti-intellectualism in Americans’ schools.It is suggested that Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect.
Key words: intellect anti-intellectualism vulue
