WRITING A WINNING ABSTRACT (AND STAYING WITHIN THE WORD LIMIT)
An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement covering the main points of a piece of writing. In contrast to executive summaries written for non-specialist audiences, abstracts use the same level of technical language and expertise as the article itself. And unlike general summaries, which can be adapted in many ways to meet the needs of different readers and writers, the abstracts are typically 150–250 words and have a fairly standard format. An abstract may be written for a variety of reasons, but the two most important ones are: Selection – to help readers (including journals) decide if they want to read your article and Indexing – for quick recovery and cross-reference. Many abstracts are published in abstract journals or in online databases without a complete ...