Abstracts: an Essential Tool to Engage Readers.

According to Hubbuch (1996) abstracts are short summaries of the most important ideas developed in a book or article. Swales and Feak (1994) state that abstracts “consist of a single paragraph containing from about four to ten full sentences” (p.111). The goal of an abstract is to attract readers so that they read the whole article or book. Abstracts can be informative or indicative. The former describe what researchers did while the latter do not include specific results but look to the future, and they are mostly used for conference abstracts (Swales & Feak, 1994).

Some abstracts follow the Introductions Methods Results and Discussions (IMRAD) formula. Writers may present this information in an unstructured way, i.e. in one long unbroken paragraph or in a more structured way, using headings.  Bearing this information in mind, we will attempt to  write a comparative analysis about the  way abstracts are presented in four different Research Papers (RPs) and Research Articles (RAs): King's (2002) and Rammal's (2006) articles belong to the educational field, whereas Wjeysunderal et al.’s (2010) and Matinez et al.´s (2010) fall within the field of medicine.

King's (2002) abstract for her article is unstructured and informative.  She does not seem to follow the IMRAD model and she does not include Methods and Results headings in the abstract.   Her approach to abstract writing seems to follow Hubbuch's (1996) guidelines, since she presents the main ideas to be discussed and the importance of the topic, and then she outlines the organization of her paper.  

Rammal (2006) also uses a brief, unstructured abstract to present his RP.  He seems to be following the RP summary approach discussed by Swales and Feak (1994). However, his abstract is not divided into sections nor does it follow the IMRAD Model. The abstract, which provides basic information about the paper, does not present details of how the project was done. The purpose of the paper and the expected audience are included.

Wjeysunderal et al. (2010) appear to have used a result-driven approach (Swales & Feak, 1994) to writing their abstract as the results of their research are stated in the abstract as well as the conclusions. Their abstract seems to be informative, as it relies on the data collected, and structured since it follows the IMRAD formula: the objectives, participants, setting, results and discussions are included in their abstract, organized into headings. Martinez et al. (2010), like Wjeysunderal et al. (2010), use a structured, result-driven approach to write the abstract for their RP. They also follow the IMRAD formula, bolded headings are used to explain how the research was conducted, and the most important sections have been identified.

Swales and Feak (1994) suggest that the linguistic characteristics of abstracts are the use of full sentences and the past tense, as well as the use of the impersonal passive. They also consider that abstracts are characterized by the absence of negatives and the avoidance of abbreviations and jargon. Martinez et al. (2010) and Wjeysunderal et al. (2010) follow these features in their abstracts, whereas King (2002) and Rammal (2006) do not. Their abstracts are more unstructured, without headings and consisting of a single paragraph. King (2002) also uses the abbreviations DVD and VHS without clarifying their meaning, taking for granted the readers’ background knowledge.

Another characteristic to take into account is the length of the abstract, i.e. the number of words used. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (2012) states that abstracts should usually contain between 150-250 words, showing the writers' abilities to summarize the main points of their RA or RP. The abstract written by Rammal (2006) seems to be rather short, for it consists of only two sentences and 51 words. Thus, it seems rather short to follow OWL’s (2012) guidelines and appears to offer insufficient information. King’s (2002) article is written in less than 150 words, it contains a single paragraph and five sentences. Therefore, it does not seem to adhere to the length suggested by OWL (2012), either.

The abstracts written by Martinez et al. (2010) and Wjeysunderal et al. (2010) belong to the medicine field and seem to exceed slightly the word limit stated by APA (2007), which is 200 words. Both Martinez et al. (2010) and Wjeysunderal et al. (2010) seem to follow the IMRAD model in the abstracts of their medical research papers because of the nature of their publications, which rely on empirical data. These abstracts are longer and more structured.

OWL (2012) states that “Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in databases”( ¶ 10).  However, none of the abstracts analyzed includes keywords. By and large, in the cases analyzed above, there seems to be a disparity in the conventions for writing abstracts. It appears that the abstracts that belong to the medicine field are longer and structured following the IMRAD model.  Both abstracts from the educational field are shorter and more unstructured, without headings and containing a single, unbroken paragraph. 

As future writers of RPs, we should bear in mind the importance of writing well-organized abstracts.  The ability to write concise, self-contained abstracts is essential: “[A]n unsatisfactory RP abstract may affect (. . .) how many people will read your paper” (Swales & Feak, 1994). An abstract is probably the readers’ first encounter with our work; thus it may as well be the most important part of it.  

References

American Psychological Association (2007). Concise rules of APA style. Washington,     DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Hubbuch, S. M. (1996). Writing research papers across the curriculum. (4th ed.).  Harcourt Brace: Fort Worth, TX.

King, J. (2002). Using DVD feature films in the EFL classroom [Abstract]. The weekly column, 88.

Martínez, C. , Assimes, T., Mines, D., Dell’Aniello, S. & Suissa, S. (2010). Use of  venlafaxine compared with other antidepressants and the risk of sudden cardiac  death or near death: a nested case-control study. [Abstract]. BMJ 2010; doi:10.1136/bmj.c249

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (2012). General Format. Retrieved  January, 2013 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.

Rammal, S. M. (2006). Video in EFL Classrooms. [Abstract]. Retrieved June 2012 from          http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/video-in-efl-classrooms.html.

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Wijeysundera, D., Beattie, W., Austin, P., Hux, J. & Laupacis, A. (2010). Non-invasive  cardiac stress testing before elective major non-cardiac surgery: population based cohort study. [Abstract]. BMJ 2010. doi:10.1136/bmj.b5526.