Unit3冯修改稿研讨.ppt

Unit 3 Abstract （4hs） 1. Definition of Abstract  (What is an abstract?) 　An abstract is a brief and self-contained summary and an accurate representation of the contents of a document such as a research paper, a journal article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, and other academic documents. The purpose of an abstract is to provide prospective readers the opportunity to judge the relevance of the longer work of their projects. 2.When are abstracts used? Submitting papers or articles to journals Applying for research grants Completing the Ph.D dissertation or M.A. thesis Writing a proposal for conference paper Indexing bibliographically as library reference tools Writing a book proposal. 3.General Functions of an Abstract. 　The function of the abstract of a scientific paper is to provide an overview of the paper so that readers can understand the main ideas and identify the basic content of the work without reading the paper in its entirety. Since the abstract is the only part of larger work most readers will see, it should present the core of the paper also for the record in databases and secondary collections. An abstract may serve various purposes. There are two most important purposes or functions the abstract should serve: selection and indexing. 3.1. Selection The primary purpose of an abstract is to facilitate a selection of documents. Abstract enable readers who may be interested in the larger work to quickly decide whether it is worth their time to read it .Readers can grasp the main story and the essential points of the document without reading the whole text of the document. 3.2. Indexing Besides selection, the other main purpose of the abstract is for indexing. Many online databases use abstracts to index larger works. Almost all scientific journals require abstracts, and most online article databases enable readers to search abstracts. This allows for quick revival by the potential r