学术英语写作Unit-5----Abstract.ppt

Common problems in writing an abstract Too long Too much detail Too short Failure to include important information Too long If your abstract is too long, it may be rejected - abstracts are entered on databases, and there are usually a specified maximum number of words. Abstracts are often too long because people forget to count their words (remember that you can use your word processing program to do this) and make their abstracts too detailed (see below). Too much detail Abstracts that are too long often have unnecessary details. The abstract is not the place for detailed explanations of methodology or for details about the context of your research problem because you simply do not have the space to present anything but the main points of your research. Too short Shorter is not necessarily better. ?If your word limit is 200 but you only write 95 words, you probably have not written in sufficient detail. You should review your abstract and see where you could usefully give more explanation - remember that in many cases readers decide whether to read the rest of your research from looking at the abstract. Many writers do not give sufficient information about their findings Failure to include important information You need to be careful to cover the points listed above. Often people do not cover all of them because they spend too long explaining, for example, the methodology and then do not have enough space to present their conclusion. ABSTRACT EXAMPLES Here is an abstract from a published paper. It is 162 words long. Again, read through it and specifically look for the main purpose of each sentence (for example, presenting the research problem, objective, methodology, main finding, or conclusion). abstract The long-term performance of various systems was determined and the economic aspects of solar hot water production were investigated in this work. The effect of the collector inclination angle, collector area and storage volume was examined for all systems, and