Tips for writing an abstract
A good abstract explains the importance of the paper in one sentence. It goes on to give a summary of your significant results, preferably supported by numbers with error limits where applicable. The final sentences explain the significant implications of your work. A good abstract is concise, coherent, and quantitative.
- Length should be 1-2 paragraphs, approximately 400-500 words.
- Abstracts do not have citations.
- Information present on title page should not be repeated.
- Be explicit.
- Use numbers where applicable.
- Answers to these questions should be present in the abstract:
- What did you do?
- Why did you do it? What question(s) were you trying to answer?
- How did you do it? State methods.
- What did you learn? State significant results.
- Why is it important? Highlight at least one significant implication.
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