Writing Brief and
Concise Abstracts – A Thorough Scrutiny
Academic writers must be aware of the importance of
using their summary skills and respect standard linguistic features to produce
an appropriate and effective abstract for their Research Article (RA). The
significance of abstracts responds not only to their function of condensing the
main ideas of a text but also to the fact that they are the first contact
target readers have with an RA and can be crucial to the acceptance of the
article.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the
previously stated characteristics are reflected in the abstracts of four
different RAs. Two of them belong to the field of medicine and the remaining two,
to the field of education. Such analysis is meant to show researchers the value
of being acquainted with the forms they are expected to respect so as to make a
legitimate contribution to their discourse community.
Analysing the abstracts
Regarding the RAs from the field of medicine, both
abstracts appear to be well written and to provide target readers with
conventional examples of what this type of text should be like. The fact that
abstracts must be clear, concise, and objective is fully reflected in Wijeysundera,
R. et. al. (2010) and Martinez, C. et. al. (2010). The approach to writing
taken by these authors is that of summarising the RA, which is the reason why
these abstracts have been classified as informative. They seem to be organised
according to the the Introduction-Methods-Results-And-Discussions (IMRAD) formula.
There exist a number of standard linguistic
characteristics for abstracts, which are mostly exhibited in the papers under
analysis. Although not all sentences are full and the reader can find
non-conjugated verbs in the Introduction, it has been observed that the past
tense for Methods, Results and Conclusion has been used and passive voice sentences
occur frequently. As for the extension of the abstracts, both appear to exceed
the maximum length of ten full sentences specified by Swales and Feak (1994)
and Hubbuch (1996).
On the other hand, the abstracts in both of the RAs on
the subject of the use of audio-visual material in the classroom do not comply
with the aforementioned characteristics in the same manner as those from the
RAs about medicine. Both RAs present unstructured abstracts which do not
include bold or italicised headings. Rammal (2006) does not apply the IMRAD
formula and in King’s (2002) article the abstract is incomplete. Rammal’s
(2006) writing conveys the impression that he has little
acquaintance with the characteristics of abstracts, and of Research Papers in
general.
A glance at Rammal’s (2006) article shows that he has failed to adhere
to the conventions of headings, since the first
heading reads ‘I. Abstract’ with an introduction section but the second heading
jumps to ‘III. Methods.’ As pointed out by Purdue OWL (2013), they should be
respected in order of appearance and numbered accordingly. On the other hand,
King’s (2002) abstract, classified as indicative, includes an Introduction, a
Methods and a Discussion section and the author properly states the topic of
her research, yet neglects the Results segment.
Regarding the conventional linguistic features of
abstracts, both writers have included full and impersonal passive sentences, and
no instances of negative statements have been observed. As regards
classification and length, it could be claimed that Rammal (2006) has not
produced a proper abstract; consisting of merely two full sentences, it does
not fulfil the previously stated minimum length for this section of RAs. In
contrast, King’s (2002) abstract is one that, as well as being appropriate in
length, better approaches the conventional characteristics, although the
introduction could be regarded as rather extended and presenting too many
active voice sentences.
Conclusion
As this analysis has shown, the RAs on the field of
medicine favour a more organised and complete form of abstracts. Proper
headings and specific data have been included in both instances to provide readers
with an accurate and comprehensive summary of their entire work. Also, standard
linguistic features have been respected throughout. On the other hand, the
abstracts in the educational RAs under scrutiny in this paper appear to display
a less structured layout, while partially complying with the standard
conventions of layout and form.
By and large, abstracts are written with the purpose
of attracting the reader’s attention, for instance, to be considered as part of
the literary review for other RAs or to be eligible for eventual publication in
a journal. Hence, it is not surprising that they are not produced until the RA
has been finished, so as to condense the main points of the whole research. To
attain this aim, not all abstracts need to be similar: within convention,
authors can find more than one manner of approaching the task of writing this
brief yet relevant section of their article.
According to this preliminary study, the four
abstracts scrutinized have shown that differing approaches do exist. Notwithstanding,
an established organization should be respected in order to provide readers
with understandable and concise information. When readers find form familiar,
they can exclusively concentrate on content; thus, researchers must be
meticulous when selecting both the information and the format of their
abstracts.
References
Hubbuch, S. M. (1996). Writing research papers across the
curriculum. (4th ed.). Harcourt Brace: Fort Worth, TX.
King, J. (2002): Using DVD features
in the EFL classroom. The Weekly Column. Article 88.
Retrieved from:
http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/February2002/art882002.htm
Martinez, C., Assimes, T., Mines,
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Paiz, J., Angeli, E., Wagner, J.,
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(2013, April 3). APA Headings and Seriation. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/16/
Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B.
(1994). Academic writing for graduate
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Michigan Press.
Rammal, S. (2006) Video in EFL
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Wijeysundera, R., Scott
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