Writing an Abstract
This is the subject at its most usable — a specification concrete enough to follow to the letter. Read its hedges precisely and one of the four style rules turns out to be the one nearly everyone breaks.
What the source specifies
Week 13 is the best-delivered material in this subject, and the abstract is the part of it that reads most like a specification. Two consecutive slides carry the whole of it. One gives the form, the length and the sequence; the next gives four rules about how the sentences themselves are written.
Between them there is very little left to guess at. That is not something this library has often been able to say, and it is worth saying plainly before the qualifications start: this passage works, and you can write from it.
THE SPECIFICATION, AND HOW BINDING EACH PART IS
| What is specified | As the source states it | Force |
|---|---|---|
| Form | "one paragraph" | Stated with no hedge — a source requirement |
| Length | "usually … 300 words or less" | Hedged with usually — a source guideline, never a standard |
| Order | "a prescribed sequence" | Requirement — but the sequence itself is only partly recoverable |
| Sequence, element 1 | "the overall purpose of the study and the research problem(s) investigated" | Source requirement |
| Sequence, element 2 | "the basic design of the study" | Source requirement |
| Sequence, element 3 | "major findings or trends found as a result of your analysis" | Source requirement |
| Sequence, elements beyond the third | Slide truncated in the supplied file | Cannot be recovered and must not be reconstructed |
| Voice | "Use the active voice when possible" | Requirement, hedged — the hedge is never explained |
| Tense | "always use the past tense" | Requirement, stated with always, and given a reason |
| Sentences | "concise, but complete, sentences" | Source requirement |
| When it is written | "written last since it will summarise the contents of your entire paper" | Source requirement, with its reason attached |
The quoted wording is the source's. The Force column is this library's classification, applied on nothing more than the presence or absence of a hedge in the source's own sentence.
Reading the two hedges precisely
Two of the eleven items above carry a qualification and the rest do not. That is not decoration. It decides which parts of the specification you can trade against a deadline and which parts you cannot.
The word count is the hedged one. "Usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less" makes 300 a working target, not a threshold, and there is nothing anywhere in the supplied material presenting it as a general or external requirement. It is one teaching source's figure.
"One paragraph" is the unhedged one, and in practice it is the harder constraint of the two. A paragraph gives you no headings, no bullet list, no sub-headings and no table. Every move in the sequence has to be carried by sentence order alone, and the reader has to be able to feel the joins without any typographic help. The source does not spell that consequence out; it follows directly from the wording.
That is worth knowing because a different format exists in published practice — the structured abstract, with labelled blocks for background, method, findings and implications. This library documents observed examples of it at Abstracts and Structured Summaries. The supplied teaching source never mentions that format. If you need one, you are working outside this specification rather than inside it.
The prescribed sequence, and where the slide stops
- Purpose and the problem investigated
- The basic design of the study
- Major findings or trends
- Sequence continues — not recoverable
The same week does show you more of what an abstract carries, in two other places, and it is worth being exact about what those are. The week's study notes give a different content list — contents, conclusion, new information and relevance — set out at Abstracts, Introductions and Conclusions Compared. The week's annotated example ends on a fourth move, significance, walked at The Anatomy of an Abstract.
Those are separate passages of the same week. They are not the missing bullets, and this page does not treat them as such. Two of them cannot be, since the notes account and the slide account are not identical to begin with.
The four style rules
Active where possible
"Use the active voice when possible." The qualification is not explained anywhere — the source never says what would make the active voice impossible. Watch the sentence reporting what was done: that is where the passive arrives, and it is the sentence the week's own worked example writes in the passive.
Concise but complete
"Write your abstract using concise, but complete, sentences." Complete rules out note form, telegraphic phrasing and the fragments that creep in when a writer is cutting to a word count. Concision has to come from choosing what to say, not from dropping verbs to save four words.
Past, always
"Get to the point quickly and always use the past tense because you are reporting on research that has been completed." One of very few rules in this subject that states its own reason. The previous week's results-section rules agree with it, so past tense holds across both sections.
Written last
"Although it is the first section of your paper, the abstract should be written last since it will summarise the contents of your entire paper." First in the document, last in the work. This is the rule readers most often get wrong, and the next section is about why.
Written last, appears first
The abstract is the first thing in the finished document and the last thing you write. Readers get this the wrong way round because the document order invites it — you open the file, the abstract heading is at the top, and it gets drafted before the thing it is meant to summarise exists.
The source's reason sits inside its own sentence: the abstract is written last "since it will summarise the contents of your entire paper". An abstract drafted early does not summarise your paper. It summarises the paper you intended to write.
The same week supplies the reason that matters most. Its writing-up slide says that "a great deal of work is done in producing the final draft of the report from the first draft". Put the two statements together and the consequence is unavoidable: an abstract written against a first draft describes a document that no longer exists by the time you submit. Joining those two statements is this library's reading; the source makes each separately and does not connect them.
Where the abstract sits in the writing sequence
Write the parts that do not need results
The source states that "many parts of a report can be written early in the research process". Method and literature sections do not wait on findings, and drafting them early is the source's own advice, not an optimisation.
Complete the first draft
The source calls this a major milestone and immediately warns against treating it as more than it is: "the first draft is simply that, the first draft".
Re-write and edit
Named by the source as a stage in its own right, and the stage it says the great deal of work happens in.
Polish to the final draft
"Take as much time as is needed" is the only guidance the source gives on how long this takes. It is unquantified, in a subject that elsewhere requires you to produce a timetable.
Write the abstract
From the finished text rather than from your intentions for it. The source states only that the abstract is written last; placing it after the final draft rather than after the first is this library's reading of what "summarise the contents of your entire paper" requires.
What the objective asked for, and what arrived
The week states three learning objectives. The third is "Assess how to write an abstract". Everything above is the how-to-write half of that, and it is delivered.
Set against the rest of the subject, though, this topic is generously served. A length guideline, a prescribed sequence, four style rules, the preview and summary distinction, and an annotated worked example: more support than any other single topic receives in fourteen weeks. The objective is recorded as partly delivered, and the missing part is precisely one thing.
Those are the reconciled figures across the eight weeks on record, and they are the only totals this library cites. The full audit, week by week and objective by objective, is at The Complete Objective Audit.
Checking your own abstract
Before the abstract goes in
- It is one paragraph. No headings, no bullets, no sub-headings, no table.
- It sits inside whatever limit governs your submission. Where none does, 300 words is the source's working target and not a threshold.
- The overall purpose of the study and the problem investigated are both stated.
- The basic design of the study is stated — this is the element the week's own worked example leaves out.
- Major findings or trends are stated, not merely promised.
- The order of the abstract follows the order of the paper's own main points. This one comes from the week's study notes rather than the slides.
- Every verb reporting the research is in the past tense.
- Every sentence that could be written active is active.
- Every sentence is complete. Nothing has been cut to a fragment to meet a count.
- It was written after the final draft, and it describes that draft rather than the paper you meant to write.
What to carry forward
- One paragraph is the constraint that shapes everything else. Sentence order has to carry the structure, because nothing else is available to you.
- 300 words is a hedged guideline from one teaching source. The limit your submission states always wins, and this figure is never a standard.
- Three sequence elements survive in the file — purpose and problem, basic design, major findings. The slide stops there and so should you.
- Past tense always. Active voice wherever the sentence allows. Complete sentences even when you are cutting.
- Write it after the final draft. An abstract drafted first describes a paper you had not finished writing.
- The week never tells you how to judge an abstract. If you want criteria, you are supplying them yourself — and the checklist above is only the specification restated.
Frequently asked questions
Is 300 words a hard limit?
Not in this source. The sentence reads "usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less", and the hedge makes it a guideline rather than a requirement. If your institution, journal or client states a limit, that limit governs; the 300 figure is one teaching source's working target and should never be cited as a standard.
Should the whole abstract be in the past tense?
The source says yes, and unusually it gives the reason: "always use the past tense because you are reporting on research that has been completed". The previous week's rules for the results section agree, so past tense holds across both. Note that the week's own annotated example does not manage it — it mixes past, present perfect and present.
Can I use bullet points or sub-headings in an abstract?
Not under this specification. "One paragraph" is stated without any hedge, which rules out headings, bullets and tables and leaves sentence order to carry the whole structure. Structured abstracts with labelled blocks do exist in published practice, but the supplied source never mentions that format.
When exactly should I write the abstract?
The source says only that it is written last, because it summarises the whole paper. This library reads that as after the final draft rather than after the first, since the same week says a great deal of work happens between those two drafts. An abstract written against a first draft describes a document that has changed by submission.
How do I tell whether my abstract is any good?
The week does not say. Its own objective was to help you "assess how to write an abstract", and no criteria, rubric or comparison of a strong and weak abstract is supplied anywhere. The most you can do from this material is check the abstract against the specification itself, which is what the checklist on this page does.
References and source attribution
- The supplied teaching source: weekly study notes, slide decks and assessment activities for a master's-level research methods subject in project management. Author, institution and year not stated in the supplied files.
- Week 13 slide deck, 'The Challenge of Writing Up' (33 slides). The abstract specification is carried on two consecutive slides; the sequence list on the first of them is truncated in the file's extractable text and no further elements can be recovered.
- Week 13 study notes, supplied as two textually identical documents under different filenames, neither dated, versioned nor marked as current.
Suggested questions for Ask KEVOS
- Check my abstract against the source's prescribed sequence and tell me which element is missing.
- Rewrite my abstract as one paragraph, past tense, under 300 words.
- Which sentences in my abstract are passive, and can each of them be made active?
- What does the supplied source say about how to judge whether an abstract is good?
- Turn my results and conclusion sections into a first draft of an abstract.
- Compare the slide account of the abstract with the study notes account.