医学英语编辑与写作abstractwriting.ppt

ccc Abstract and Key Words October, 2010 a brief summary of each of the main sections of the paper: To state the main objectives and scope of the investigation To describe the methods used To summarize the results To state the major conclusions a miniature version of the paper Purpose of the abstract Help readers build a good picture of what is in your paper – Useful for individuals reviewing papers they have read – Useful for individuals searching for a particular piece of evidence – Helps with the reading of a complex paper A person should be able to understand exactly what your essay is about just from reading the Abstract. Purpose of the Abstract Get paper accepted – When a reviewer reads your paper they form an image of what it is about from the title and the abstract – The reviewer uses this impression to interpret the rest of the information in the paper – If the abstract is disorganized or incomplete, this will leave reviewer with initial impression of paper that may be hard to change Purpose of the abstract Get paper cited by others – Researchers are busy people. Often they do not read entire papers, only the abstract – A good abstract will help a busy researcher to skim your paper, and possibly get you cited – Many search programs do a keyword in context search so that words in abstract help your paper to be found “A well-prepared abstract enables readers to identify the basic content of a document quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether they need to read the document in its entirety.” The Importance of Abstract Let reader decide whether to read further. Is the 1st part to be read, therefore it sets up positive or negative expectations for the remainder of the work Should encourage readers who decide the topic is relevant to read further Types of Abstracts 1. Descriptive/indicative abstracts: It merely describes what the report is about. It does not give any specific information about