Writing a Winning Abstract: Articles versus Presentations
The LSE Impact Blog features a pair of how-to postings on writing abstracts that can be usefully compared and contrasted when preparing an abstract for a scholarly article or conference presentation (http://bit.ly/1LhaAu9 and http://bit.ly/1DfXGqJ). The two postings provide similar advice, but the emphases outlined for each type of abstract are well worth keeping in mind.
The first of these postings opens with the importance of emphasising in an article abstract the key discoveries and findings of the research, the ‘bottom line’ argument of the paper and the main ‘take-away points’ that readers should remember. It outlines an effective sequence for the information provided in the abstract – namely, the background of the research, the distinctive nature of the approach, the precise methodology, the most important findings and conclusions, and the originality of the work – and suggests what portion of an abstract might be dedicated to each element. It also highlights using language with special care and precision in an abstract so that unnecessary words are avoided and the article is described with accuracy for potential readers without exceeding word limits, which tend to be particularly stringent when it comes to abstracts.
Much of this advice applies to presentation abstracts as well, but the posting dedicated to that topic makes the important distinction that abstracts for articles ‘are presented to journal proofreaders along with the article concerned,’ allowing comparison between abstract and paper, whereas presentation abstracts ‘are presented alone to conference organisers’ and must therefore stand on their own. For this reason, a presentation abstract should always be ‘fascinating, enticing, and different,’ which means that it should stand out from the crowd of abstracts the organisers receive. If your presentation is on the most fashionable current topic, try to make it sound as unique as possible; if you are not working in a particularly fashionable area, dedicate special attention to making your research sound appealing. Conference organisers want presentations that are interesting and will engage the audience, so it is also a good idea to say something about how you plan to present the material (slides and videos, for instance, are always a useful tool for holding the attention of an audience). Finally, if your abstract is accepted, make sure that you do your best to write a presentation that delivers what you have promised.
Both postings imply how essential it is to dedicate considerable thought and effort to each abstract you write. Your abstract acts as a herald announcing your work to your audience when you initially submit it to journal proofreaders or conference organisers, again when it is read by peer reviewers or heard by conference attendees, and yet again when potential readers are searching online for content like that in your article or presentation. For these reasons and others, writing, proofreading, editing and polishing an abstract with an eye to your audience and the utmost attention to detail is always a worthwhile endeavour.
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