A brief presentation on how to write an abstract for Mr. Foster's ENGL 3310 course.

1. How to Write an
Abstract

2. What is an abstract?
• An abstract is a small piece of writing that usually appears at the beginning
of some official report or paper that mostly summarizes the information that
can be found in the report or paper.
• The purpose of an abstract is to let your readers know what information
your paper will contain so that they can decide whether or not reading the
paper is worth their time. So, make it worth their time!

3. The Structure of an Abstract
• Much like a traditional essay or paper, an abstract should also follow the usual
“Introduction – Body – Conclusion” structure. You’ll just do this in a much shorter
format.
• Since a traditional abstract is only going to be between 100 and 500 words,
depending on your assignment or the reason that you’re writing the abstract, don’t
expect for your “introduction” and “conclusion” sections to be more than a
sentence or two. Make sure you know what your assignment requires.
• Your body will, of course, contain the majority of your content; therefore, the body
will be the majority of the writing involved in the abstract.

4. Introduction
• Your introduction segment will contain the thesis statement for your paper.
• Like any normal thesis, this should, as succinctly as possible, tell your readers
your research question or your claim, explain the purpose, and give a
prediction of how you’re arguing this claim/discovering the research
question.
• EX: This paper discusses the ways that game media portray women and how those
portrayals perpetuate negative gender stereotypes.
• Notice: My claim is that game media portrays women negatively, and the purpose/preview of the
writing is that I’ll be discussing these different portrayals and talking about how they are negative.

5. Body
• For the most part, the body of your abstract should match the body of your
paper. So, you likely want to spend a sentence or two (or less!) on each of
the main ideas of your paper’s body.

6. Conclusion
• If anything, the conclusion of an abstract is MORE difficult than the conclusion of
a “real” paper. Since you want to give your readers a reason to read your actual
paper, you should abstain from delivering your full, complete conclusion in the
abstract. However, you should give your readers enough of a conclusion to “get the
gist” of your research findings.
• EX: Ultimately, negative portrayals of women in the gaming industry are probably
unavoidable; however, the shift in the industry towards independent developers and critics
will do much to improve these issues.
• Notice: I don’t explain to the reader HOW these are unavoidable or HOW the shift will improve things.
That’s for the paper to do!