How to Write An Abstract

Liping Liu

Introduction

An abstract is a short summary of your completed research. If done well, it makes the reader want to learn more about your research.

Despite the fact that an abstract is quite brief, it must do almost as much work as the multi-page paper that follows it.

Use the following as a checklist for your next abstract .

Motivation

Why do we care about the problem and the results?

This section should include the importance of your work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful.

Problem statement

What problem are you trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a

generalized approach, or for a specific situation)?

Approach

How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem?

Did you use simulation, analytic models, prototype construction, or analysis of field data for an actual product?

What was the extent of your work. What important variables did you control,

ignore, or measure?

Results

What's the answer? What did you learn/invent/create?

Conclusion

What are the implications of your answer? Are your results general, potentially

generalizable, or specific to a particular case?

Other Considerations

An abstract must be a fully self-contained, capsule description of the paper.

Meet the word count limitation. An abstract word limit of 150 to 200 words is common.

Avoid using bibliographic references in the Abstract unless they are absolutely essential to understanding the scholarship or results of the study.

Further Reading

Google search online http://www.sccur.uci.edu/sampleabstracts.html http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/

abstract.html http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/Abstract.html Michaelson, Herbert, How to Write & Publish

Engineering Papers and Reports, Oryx Press, 1990. Chapter 6 discusses abstracts.

Cremmins, Edward, The Art of Abstracting 2nd Edition, Info Resources Press, April 1996. This is an entire book about abstracting, written primarily for professional abstractors.

Sample Abstract

Persistent Global Activation of the Aplysia Serotonergic System After Sensitizing Stimuli

Kristine KolkmanMentor: Dr. Thomas Carew

The marine mollusk Aplysia responds to noxious stimulation with a stereotyped arousalreaction that includes escape locomotion, increased heart rate and sensitization of defensivereflexes. Although previous studies have shown that serotonin (5-HT) is important for most ofthese behavioral responses, it is still unclear how the 5-HT system is activated in response tonoxious stimuli. To address this question, I used a specific staining of the 5-HT neurons in theliving central nervous system (CNS) that allowed me to (1) systematically record their electricalactivity following a noxious stimulus, and (2) trace their projections using the neuronal tracerNeurobiotin. I found that in response to tail-nerve shock, a procedure known to mimic a

noxioustail stimulus, the vast majority of 5-HT neurons increased their firing rate for several minutesand became more excitable. 5-HT neurons were found to project toward various peripheraltargets such as the gill, heart, body wall, tail, siphon, head, and tentacles as well as to otherganglia in the CNS. This study shows that the Aplysia 5-HT system is globally and persistentlyactivated after a noxious stimulus. Such an activation might serve to synchronize the differentaspects of the arousal reaction in Aplysia.