How To Write An Abstract For An Academic Paper

Introduction

Writing an abstract for your academic paper is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process. In this article, we’ll take you through all the steps from beginning to end. We’ll start with an introduction that grabs your reader’s attention and then dive into methods and results. Finally, we’ll sum up our findings and discuss them in light of what others have written on this topic in previous research articles.

Start With a Strong Introduction

The introduction serves two purposes: it sets the stage for your paper, and it gives the reader an idea of what to expect. You want to start with a strong, concise statement that clearly defines your topic.

In addition, you should provide a brief overview of where you are going with your paper. This can take many forms—you might include a specific summary of what you intend to cover or outline a few key points from which everything else stems—but whatever form it takes, try not to include too much detail because this will likely come up later anyway!

Add the Method

The next step is to summarize the method and results of your study. Here, you will want to take into account what you did in relation to the question that motivated your research. For example, if this is a case study on college students, briefly describe how you selected your sample and how they were recruited. You should also include any instruments or surveys that were used during data collection. If there were any ethical considerations when conducting this research, you could mention them here as well (e.g., participants were required to provide consent forms).

Summarize the Main Findings and Conclusions

You can summarize the findings in one or two sentences. For example, “The results showed that people who eat a lot of cheese are more likely to develop heart disease.”

In addition, you should discuss your conclusions. Explain how the findings are important and why they are relevant to other disciplines or areas of study.

Conclusion

Writing an abstract for an academic paper is a challenging but an important skill to master.

If you want to learn more about how to write a great abstract, as well as how to write the introduction, method, results, discussion, and conclusion, and how to respond to reviewers, make sure your paper gets through the publication process, check out our book,How To Write An Academic Paper 101“.