Writing a good abstract

Writing a good abstract is very important. It needs to contain certain information, grasp your audience’s attention and convince the scientific committee that your paper should be heard. Writing a good abstract can also be a little scary. Here are some tips and tricks for writing a proper abstract.

Every abstract should be written in clear, short sentences. Don’t make it too complicated — save that for the paper! Grabbing your audience’s attention in 300 words is done by introducing your topic briefly and clearly. Make sure it does not exceed the word limit, and do not add footnotes, images or tables. If you would like to refer to publications, use only a last name and the date of publication. The most important part of presenting a paper is making sure your topic fits within the time limit: make sure you show us in your abstract how you can present your topic within the assigned 20 minutes.

When writing an abstract, there are some elements that it should always have: 

  1. Your scope. What are you going to tell us? Give clear dates, names and the material you’ve been working with. Briefly explain to us what your topic entails.
  2. Your research question. After introducing your material, tell us what questions you would like to ask concerning the material. 
  3. The problems. Every paper has difficulties, what sort of problems do you have to deal with whilst doing your research? 
  4. Some hypotheses. What do you think you can learn from the material? What are the answers you expect from it, and why? 
  5. Your methodology. What theories have you been using to address your research question? 
  6. Some preliminary results. Show us how you’ve applying your theories and methods, and what kind of results you’ve yielded so far. 
  7. Tell us why we should care. Why are the questions you are asking relevant? Which part of your research is important and relevant to the field? Don’t worry; a topic may be researched one hundred times, but every time will result in something new! You already think your topic is super interesting, make sure you convince us it is too! 
  8. Some past research. Why is your research different from the others? What has been done on your topic so far? 

Good luck with writing your abstract! You can submit yours for the ICYE 2019 here.