1 “How To Write An Abstract”Summer 2017
2 Importance of the AbstractPurpose of an abstract: To help readers decide whether or not they want to read the full paper. Abstracts are often published separately in outlets such as Web sites or secondary and indexing journals. It is often the only part of your work that will be read. Sometimes only the abstract is available. The reader may be in a hurry.
3 Content of an Abstract Everything that is important in the paper must be reflected in the abstract; it is the paper in miniature. Flow and outline should roughly match the paper: Introduction Materials / Methods Results Discussion Conclusion (But! These headings will not actually occur in the abstract) Succinct writing is absolutely critical.
4 The Title Thousands of people will read a title, but fewer will actually go on to read the paper. Title should represent the contents of the paper as accurately and concisely as possible. For a scientific paper, don’t use cute, poetic, or otherwise overly stylized titles. A good title will include significant key words and suggest the focus (and even conclusions) of the paper.
5 The Title, con’t….Which one is better?“Famers Dig Into Soil Quality: Analytical Technique Promises to Match Fertilizers to Soil in Bid to Boost Yields.” “Feline Leukemia Virus Requires a Post- Receptor Binding Envelope-Dependent Cellular Component.”
6 Prose – The Nuts and Bolts of WritingDon’t try to be literary or overly clever. Clear, direct, unambiguous and forceful writing is appropriate for scientific communication. Re-read your text as if it were written by somebody else and ask yourself. Is the language clear? Does it read smoothly? Is it as short and direct as possible? (No redundancies!) Does it read like English? (e.g., does it use English constructions?) Use spell and grammar check. Be careful with your verb tenses. Be purposeful and consistent with active/passive voice.
7 Style Points Should not contain citations unless they are absolutely necessary to understand the work. Should not include detailed reasoning. Choose either active or passive voice and be consistent throughout the abstract. Passive is okay. Do not refer to the authors in the 3rd person. Say “I” or “we” if you are using active voice. Avoid unnecessary phrases “The results show…” “The analysis reveals…”
8 Four Sample Sections (Rank them, and identify the primary flaw in all but the strongest)In my opinion, it seems to me that college football should be abolished. The reason why I think this to be true is because college football is bad in nearly every respect. As Robert Hutchins has said, it would be better and just as logical if the colleges had horse races. I firmly agree that this point is true, and as my research shows… The lizard beetles of the tribe Languriini constitute a moderately diversified taxon, consisting of hundreds of species worldwide, and have been reported to feed primarily on plant matter. Adult females of the lizard beetle Doubledaya bucculenta, which is endemic to Japan, have a large asymmetric head with enlarged mandibles and elongated forelegs. In spring, they excavate a small hole on a recently-dead stem of Pleioblastus and Semiarundinaria bamboos, lay an egg into the cavity, and plug the hole with bamboo fiber. We found that… But what becomes most interesting is the departure from the Joycean epiphany in the later stages of his oeuvre. Gone is the notion of the “quidditas,” and gone too are the other trappings of modernity (and pure realism before it). Indeed, as many scholars have illustrated, by this stage a postmodern fascination with the very quotidian nature of the sentence itself has completely subsumed the notion of character and characterization. But seriously – these fish are out there eating like a million flies. By the end of the study, there were only maybe four or five left. And cause of this, we knew that these fish would eat em all, if they could. (They were like nom nom nom - LOL!)
9 Let’s try a writing exercise….Of course we don’t have time to practice by reading an entire article and writing a full abstract. But we can practice the skills on a smaller scale. Read the introduction to the shark paper. Read actively, marking up the text and taking notes as needed. (If you’re interested, you can find the full paper here: Write your version of the opening sentences for an abstract. Remember that the final abstract would be no more than 300 words. As such, the section summarizing the intro will be just two or three sentences. As a class, we’ll compare our abstract openings to the real one. How close did we get? What do we notice about the abstract?
10 From “Experimental Evaluation of Shark Detection Rates by Aerial Observers” William D. Robbins, Victor M. Peddemors, Steven J. Kennelly, and Matthew C. Ives
11 The Real Abstract Aerial surveys are a recognized technique to identify the presence and abundance of marine animals. However, the capability of aerial observers to reliably sight coastal sharks has not been previously assessed, nor have differences in sighting rates between aircraft types been examined. In this study we investigated the ability of observers in fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft to sight 2.5 m artificial shark analogues placed at known depths and positions. Initial tests revealed that the shark analogues could only be detected at shallow depths, averaging only 2.5 m and 2.7 m below the water surface for observers in fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft, respectively. We then deployed analogues at shallower depths along a 5 km long grid, and assessed their sightability to aircraft observers through a series of transects flown within 500 m. Analogues were seen infrequently from all distances, with overall sighting rates of only 12.5% and 17.1% for fixed-wing and helicopter observers, respectively. Although helicopter observers had consistently higher success rates of sighting analogues within 250 m of their flight path, neither aircraft observers sighted more than 9% of analogues deployed over 300 m from their flight paths. Modelling of sighting rates against environmental and experimental variables indicated that observations were affected by distance, aircraft type, sun glare and sea conditions, while the range of water turbidities observed had no effect. We conclude that aerial observers have limited ability to detect the presence of submerged animals such as sharks, particularly when the sharks are deeper than ~2.6 m, or over 300 m distant from the aircraft’s flight path, especially during sunny or windy days. The low rates of detections found in this study cast serious doubts on the use of aerial beach patrols as an effective early-warning system to prevent shark attacks.
12 How to Prepare Your AbstractWrite your abstract – review it – ask a peer to read it Send your abstract to all of your co-authors with time for them to review and provide edits/feedback to you (so ideally by Monday). Track changes in MS Word works great. For “Co-Authors,” include those you’ve worked with closely, who’ve been directly involved in your work. Grad student who assisted with your experiments? Yes. IT person who fixed your laptop? No. If their name(s) will be on the poster, they should be listed as a co-author and have a chance to review your abstract. Note that you may well not have all your results and conclusions yet. This is fine. You can include any preliminary results or anticipated results.
13 How to Submit Your Abstract for the August 4th Poster Session (Deadline Is July 13, 2017)https://summerresearch.wsu.edu/ Click “Summer Research Poster Symposium” Click “Submit Your Abstract” at the top and enter your information. Type carefully and proofread closely. For “Other Collaborators/Co-Authors,” include those you’ve worked with closely, who’ve been directly involved in your work. Note: an will be automatically sent to your program director when you submit the abstract Feel free to with any technical questions about the submission form. your research mentors with questions like: Should Mary the lab assistant be a co-author? Should we mention the results of the test that failed?
14 Questions? Look at previous abstract books online herehttps://summerresearch.wsu.edu/previous-experiences/