Week 9 Writing the Abstract

1. Week 9
Writing the Abstract

2. Learning Outcome
1. Construct a research abstract

3. What is an abstract?
 An abstract is a summary of the most important
elements of your paper.
 Your abstract should be one paragraph and should be
100-200 words.
 It is printed on a separate page of paper, after the title
page and before the introduction.
 It is written after the paper is completed.
 In academia, this is the most important part of your
paper – the part that most readers will read.

4. An abstract answers the following questions:
 What topic did you research? (Topic)
 What was the objective of your research?
(Research Question)
 What did you find? (Main points / Results)
 What do your findings mean? (Discussion-
Conclusion)

5. Difference between Abstract / Introduction
 Introductions are longer – more space for background
information, context, definitions etc.
 Introductions announce the purpose of your paper and
its structure.
 Abstracts summarize the whole paper (also the
answers/results).
 An abstract summarizes, an introduction announces

6. Should the following be part of the abstract?
1. Information that is not in the paper. NO
2. Tables or diagrams NO
3. Citations USUALLY NO
4. Summary of the results of the paper YES
5. The use of “I” MAYBE , “We”, “You” NO
6. Full sentences YES
7. bullet points NO
8. Copied text from your paper NO, PARAPHRASE
9. A mix of verb tenses (present/past/future) and voice (passive/active) YES
10. More than 1000 words NO, 100-200 words

7. Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is
increasingly common, many researchers have suggested that
laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking
for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’
capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops
the present research suggests that even when laptops are
used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning
because their use results in shallower processing. In three
studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops
performed worse on conceptual questions than students who
took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more
notes can be beneficial. Laptop note takers’ tendency to
transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing
PRACTICE 1: READ THE ABSTRACT AND FIND:
3 PUNCTUATION MISTAKES
(1 COMMA SPLICE, 1 RUN ON SENTENCE AND 1 FRAGMENT)

8. Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is
increasingly common, many researchers have suggested that
laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking
for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’
capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops
the present research suggests that even when laptops are
used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning
because their use results in shallower processing. In three
studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops
performed worse on conceptual questions than students who
took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more
notes can be beneficial. Laptop note takers’ tendency to
transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing
PRACTICE 2
Read the abstract and find:
1. background information 2. purpose of the paper/research 3. method used 4. results
5. discussion / conclusion

9. Laptops are commonplace in university classrooms in light
of cognitive psychology theory on costs associated with
multitasking we examined the effects of in-class laptop
use on student learning in a simulated classroom we found
that participants who multitasked on a laptop during a
lecture scored lower on a test compared to those who did
not multitask and participants who were in direct view of a
multitasking peer scored lower on a test compared to
those who were not the results demonstrate that
multitasking on a laptop poses a significant distraction to
both users and fellow students and can be detrimental to
PRACTICE 3:
Read the abstract and punctuate it.
You need 3 more periods (full stops) and 3 capital letters. You
also need 1 (or 2) commas.

10. Read the abstract and find:
1. background information 2. purpose of the paper/research 3.
method used 4. results 5. discussion / conclusion
Laptops are commonplace in university classrooms. In
light of cognitive psychology theory on costs associated
with multitasking, we examined the effects of in-class
laptop use on student learning in a simulated classroom.
We found that participants who multitasked on a laptop
during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to
those who did not multitask, and participants who were
in direct view of a multitasking peer scored lower on a
test compared to those who were not. The results
demonstrate that multitasking on a laptop poses a
PRACTICE 4:
Read the abstract and find:
1. Background information 2. Purpose of the paper/research 3.
Method used 4. Results 5. Discussion / conclusion

11. Reference Page
 use a template (e.g. Word Doc) for lay-out
purposes
 use CitationMachine or review the rules for
Reference Page citations
 Google Scholar for academic sources
 alphabetize your list
 separate page
 list all your sources (minimum of 8), but not ones
that you did not use in your paper.