abstract and bibliography

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APA Formatting

Abstract apa formatting , abstract .

Begin the abstract on a new page

Identify it with the running head and page number 2

Label "Abstract" should appear in upper and lower case letters

Abstract itself is double spaced paragraph without paragraph indentation

Times Roman typeface

1-inch margins

You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, indent as you would if you were starting a new paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized), and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in databases.

Annotated Bibliography APA Formatting

Annotated Bibliography includes:

The bibliographic information of the source

APA Format

The annotation follows the citation on the next line.

The annotation

Double-space

What is an Abstract & an Annotated Bibliography?

A brief summary of the research contents Provides quick information about the topic including problem, methodology, participants (if any), findings, and conclusion. Qualities of a good abstract:

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.). An annotated bibliography includes a summary and/ or evaluation of each other sources. Depending on the assignment, your annotation may do one or more of the following:

Assess

Annotated bibliographies are useful when organizing sources for research projects.

Additional Resources

Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Definition and Purpose of Abstracts

An abstract is a short summary of your (published or unpublished) research paper, usually about a paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes:

It’s also worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases use abstracts, as well as the title, to identify key terms for indexing your published paper. So what you include in your abstract and in your title are crucial for helping other researchers find your paper or article.

If you are writing an abstract for a course paper, your professor may give you specific guidelines for what to include and how to organize your abstract. Similarly, academic journals often have specific requirements for abstracts. So in addition to following the advice on this page, you should be sure to look for and follow any guidelines from the course or journal you’re writing for.

The Contents of an Abstract

Abstracts contain most of the following kinds of information in brief form. The body of your paper will, of course, develop and explain these ideas much more fully. As you will see in the samples below, the proportion of your abstract that you devote to each kind of information—and the sequence of that information—will vary, depending on the nature and genre of the paper that you are summarizing in your abstract. And in some cases, some of this information is implied, rather than stated explicitly. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , which is widely used in the social sciences, gives specific guidelines for what to include in the abstract for different kinds of papers—for empirical studies, literature reviews or meta-analyses, theoretical papers, methodological papers, and case studies.

Here are the typical kinds of information found in most abstracts:

Your abstract should be intelligible on its own, without a reader’s having to read your entire paper. And in an abstract, you usually do not cite references—most of your abstract will describe what you have studied in your research and what you have found and what you argue in your paper. In the body of your paper, you will cite the specific literature that informs your research.

When to Write Your Abstract

Although you might be tempted to write your abstract first because it will appear as the very first part of your paper, it’s a good idea to wait to write your abstract until after you’ve drafted your full paper, so that you know what you’re summarizing.

What follows are some sample abstracts in published papers or articles, all written by faculty at UW-Madison who come from a variety of disciplines. We have annotated these samples to help you see the work that these authors are doing within their abstracts.

Choosing Verb Tenses within Your Abstract

The social science sample (Sample 1) below uses the present tense to describe general facts and interpretations that have been and are currently true, including the prevailing explanation for the social phenomenon under study. That abstract also uses the present tense to describe the methods, the findings, the arguments, and the implications of the findings from their new research study. The authors use the past tense to describe previous research.

The humanities sample (Sample 2) below uses the past tense to describe completed events in the past (the texts created in the pulp fiction industry in the 1970s and 80s) and uses the present tense to describe what is happening in those texts, to explain the significance or meaning of those texts, and to describe the arguments presented in the article.

The science samples (Samples 3 and 4) below use the past tense to describe what previous research studies have done and the research the authors have conducted, the methods they have followed, and what they have found. In their rationale or justification for their research (what remains to be done), they use the present tense. They also use the present tense to introduce their study (in Sample 3, “Here we report . . .”) and to explain the significance of their study (In Sample 3, This reprogramming . . . “provides a scalable cell source for. . .”).

Sample Abstract 1

From the social sciences.

Reporting new findings about the reasons for increasing economic homogamy among spouses

Gonalons-Pons, Pilar, and Christine R. Schwartz. “Trends in Economic Homogamy: Changes in Assortative Mating or the Division of Labor in Marriage?” Demography , vol. 54, no. 3, 2017, pp. 985-1005.

“The growing economic resemblance of spouses has contributed to rising inequality by increasing the number of couples in which there are two high- or two low-earning partners. [Annotation for the previous sentence: The first sentence introduces the topic under study (the “economic resemblance of spouses”). This sentence also implies the question underlying this research study: what are the various causes—and the interrelationships among them—for this trend?] The dominant explanation for this trend is increased assortative mating. Previous research has primarily relied on cross-sectional data and thus has been unable to disentangle changes in assortative mating from changes in the division of spouses’ paid labor—a potentially key mechanism given the dramatic rise in wives’ labor supply. [Annotation for the previous two sentences: These next two sentences explain what previous research has demonstrated. By pointing out the limitations in the methods that were used in previous studies, they also provide a rationale for new research.] We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to decompose the increase in the correlation between spouses’ earnings and its contribution to inequality between 1970 and 2013 into parts due to (a) changes in assortative mating, and (b) changes in the division of paid labor. [Annotation for the previous sentence: The data, research and analytical methods used in this new study.] Contrary to what has often been assumed, the rise of economic homogamy and its contribution to inequality is largely attributable to changes in the division of paid labor rather than changes in sorting on earnings or earnings potential. Our findings indicate that the rise of economic homogamy cannot be explained by hypotheses centered on meeting and matching opportunities, and they show where in this process inequality is generated and where it is not.” (p. 985) [Annotation for the previous two sentences: The major findings from and implications and significance of this study.]

Sample Abstract 2

From the humanities.

Analyzing underground pulp fiction publications in Tanzania, this article makes an argument about the cultural significance of those publications

Emily Callaci. “Street Textuality: Socialism, Masculinity, and Urban Belonging in Tanzania’s Pulp Fiction Publishing Industry, 1975-1985.” Comparative Studies in Society and History , vol. 59, no. 1, 2017, pp. 183-210.

“From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, a network of young urban migrant men created an underground pulp fiction publishing industry in the city of Dar es Salaam. [Annotation for the previous sentence: The first sentence introduces the context for this research and announces the topic under study.] As texts that were produced in the underground economy of a city whose trajectory was increasingly charted outside of formalized planning and investment, these novellas reveal more than their narrative content alone. These texts were active components in the urban social worlds of the young men who produced them. They reveal a mode of urbanism otherwise obscured by narratives of decolonization, in which urban belonging was constituted less by national citizenship than by the construction of social networks, economic connections, and the crafting of reputations. This article argues that pulp fiction novellas of socialist era Dar es Salaam are artifacts of emergent forms of male sociability and mobility. In printing fictional stories about urban life on pilfered paper and ink, and distributing their texts through informal channels, these writers not only described urban communities, reputations, and networks, but also actually created them.” (p. 210) [Annotation for the previous sentences: The remaining sentences in this abstract interweave other essential information for an abstract for this article. The implied research questions: What do these texts mean? What is their historical and cultural significance, produced at this time, in this location, by these authors? The argument and the significance of this analysis in microcosm: these texts “reveal a mode or urbanism otherwise obscured . . .”; and “This article argues that pulp fiction novellas. . . .” This section also implies what previous historical research has obscured. And through the details in its argumentative claims, this section of the abstract implies the kinds of methods the author has used to interpret the novellas and the concepts under study (e.g., male sociability and mobility, urban communities, reputations, network. . . ).]

Sample Abstract/Summary 3

From the sciences.

Reporting a new method for reprogramming adult mouse fibroblasts into induced cardiac progenitor cells

Lalit, Pratik A., Max R. Salick, Daryl O. Nelson, Jayne M. Squirrell, Christina M. Shafer, Neel G. Patel, Imaan Saeed, Eric G. Schmuck, Yogananda S. Markandeya, Rachel Wong, Martin R. Lea, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Timothy A. Hacker, Wendy C. Crone, Michael Kyba, Daniel J. Garry, Ron Stewart, James A. Thomson, Karen M. Downs, Gary E. Lyons, and Timothy J. Kamp. “Lineage Reprogramming of Fibroblasts into Proliferative Induced Cardiac Progenitor Cells by Defined Factors.” Cell Stem Cell , vol. 18, 2016, pp. 354-367.

“Several studies have reported reprogramming of fibroblasts into induced cardiomyocytes; however, reprogramming into proliferative induced cardiac progenitor cells (iCPCs) remains to be accomplished. [Annotation for the previous sentence: The first sentence announces the topic under study, summarizes what’s already known or been accomplished in previous research, and signals the rationale and goals are for the new research and the problem that the new research solves: How can researchers reprogram fibroblasts into iCPCs?] Here we report that a combination of 11 or 5 cardiac factors along with canonical Wnt and JAK/STAT signaling reprogrammed adult mouse cardiac, lung, and tail tip fibroblasts into iCPCs. The iCPCs were cardiac mesoderm-restricted progenitors that could be expanded extensively while maintaining multipo-tency to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells in vitro. Moreover, iCPCs injected into the cardiac crescent of mouse embryos differentiated into cardiomyocytes. iCPCs transplanted into the post-myocardial infarction mouse heart improved survival and differentiated into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells. [Annotation for the previous four sentences: The methods the researchers developed to achieve their goal and a description of the results.] Lineage reprogramming of adult somatic cells into iCPCs provides a scalable cell source for drug discovery, disease modeling, and cardiac regenerative therapy.” (p. 354) [Annotation for the previous sentence: The significance or implications—for drug discovery, disease modeling, and therapy—of this reprogramming of adult somatic cells into iCPCs.]

Sample Abstract 4, a Structured Abstract

Reporting results about the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis, from a rigorously controlled study

Note: This journal requires authors to organize their abstract into four specific sections, with strict word limits. Because the headings for this structured abstract are self-explanatory, we have chosen not to add annotations to this sample abstract.

Wald, Ellen R., David Nash, and Jens Eickhoff. “Effectiveness of Amoxicillin/Clavulanate Potassium in the Treatment of Acute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children.” Pediatrics , vol. 124, no. 1, 2009, pp. 9-15.

“OBJECTIVE: The role of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) in children is controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of high-dose amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate in the treatment of children diagnosed with ABS.

METHODS : This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Children 1 to 10 years of age with a clinical presentation compatible with ABS were eligible for participation. Patients were stratified according to age (<6 or ≥6 years) and clinical severity and randomly assigned to receive either amoxicillin (90 mg/kg) with potassium clavulanate (6.4 mg/kg) or placebo. A symptom survey was performed on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, and 30. Patients were examined on day 14. Children’s conditions were rated as cured, improved, or failed according to scoring rules.

RESULTS: Two thousand one hundred thirty-five children with respiratory complaints were screened for enrollment; 139 (6.5%) had ABS. Fifty-eight patients were enrolled, and 56 were randomly assigned. The mean age was 6630 months. Fifty (89%) patients presented with persistent symptoms, and 6 (11%) presented with nonpersistent symptoms. In 24 (43%) children, the illness was classified as mild, whereas in the remaining 32 (57%) children it was severe. Of the 28 children who received the antibiotic, 14 (50%) were cured, 4 (14%) were improved, 4(14%) experienced treatment failure, and 6 (21%) withdrew. Of the 28children who received placebo, 4 (14%) were cured, 5 (18%) improved, and 19 (68%) experienced treatment failure. Children receiving the antibiotic were more likely to be cured (50% vs 14%) and less likely to have treatment failure (14% vs 68%) than children receiving the placebo.

CONCLUSIONS : ABS is a common complication of viral upper respiratory infections. Amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate results in significantly more cures and fewer failures than placebo, according to parental report of time to resolution.” (9)

Some Excellent Advice about Writing Abstracts for Basic Science Research Papers, by Professor Adriano Aguzzi from the Institute of Neuropathology at the University of Zurich:

Academic and Professional Writing

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A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis

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Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

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Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

Job Materials and Application Essays

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Planning and Writing Research Papers

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Writing Annotated Bibliographies

Creating Poster Presentations

Thank-You Notes

Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors

Reading for a Review

Critical Reviews

Writing a Review of Literature

Scientific Reports

Scientific Report Format

Sample Lab Assignment

Writing for the Web

Writing an Effective Blog Post

Writing for Social Media: A Guide for Academics

Science Fair Project Abstract

What's an abstract.

An abstract is an abbreviated version of your science fair project final report. For most science fairs it is limited to a maximum of 250 words (check the rules for your competition). The science fair project abstract appears at the beginning of the report as well as on your display board.

Almost all scientists and engineers agree that an abstract should have the following five pieces:

Things to Avoid

Why Is an Abstract Important?

Your science fair project abstract lets people quickly determine if they want to read the entire report. Consequently, at least ten times as many people will read your abstract as any other part of your work. It's like an advertisement for what you've done. If you want judges and the public to be excited about your science fair project, then write an exciting, engaging abstract!

Since an abstract is so short, each section is usually only one or two sentences long. Consequently, every word is important to conveying your message. If a word is boring or vague, refer to a thesaurus and find a better one! If a word is not adding something important, cut it! But, even with the abstract's brief length, don't be afraid to reinforce a key point by stating it in more than one way or referring to it in more than one section.

How to Meet the Word Limit

Most authors agree that it is harder to write a short description of something than a long one. Here's a tip: for your first draft, don't be overly concerned about the length. Just make sure you include all the key information. Then take your draft and start crossing out words, phrases, and sentences that are less important than others. Look for places where you can combine sentences in ways that shorten the total length. Put it aside for a while, then come back and re-read your draft. With a fresh eye, you'll probably find new places to cut. Before you know it you will have a tightly written abstract.

Sample Abstract .

Science Fair Project Abstract Checklist

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Writing Guide

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The APA Guide is a great place to start! It has everything. If you have specific questions about all things APA or research related, you can use the Ask a Librarian chat service.

Annotated Bibliography, Abstract, & Appendices

Annotated Bibliography

What's an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is the full citation of a source followed by notes and commentary about a source . The word “annotate” means “critical or explanatory notes” and the word “bibliography” means “a list of sources”. Annotations are meant to be critical in addition to being descriptive . Annotated bibliographies are useful because they present a list of resources that others can use for research, and each resource has information that describes what is in it and that evaluates it (describes what makes it unique, useful, or helpful).

Take a look at the Annotated Bibliography page of the APA Guide for more information. In the APA Guide you will find a short video explaining the process, anatomy of an annotated bibliography, formatting guidelines, and examples.

What's an abstract?

The purpose of an abstract is to provide a reader with a short summary of a written work . Generally, it is one paragraph ranging from 150 to 250 words. A well written abstract should be accurate, non-evaluative, readable, and concise.

Take a look at our Abstract FAQ for more information. In this FAQ you will find the anatomy of an abstract, formatting guidelines, along with examples.

Want to learn more? Check out APA Academic Writer's Quick Guide on Abstracts and Keywords:

Abstract and Keywords

Learn how to write an abstract and how to select keywords, including how to achieve the appropriate length, content, and format.

Academic Writer

What are appendices?

An appendix is a section at the end of a paper that includes information that is too detailed for the text of the paper itself and would "burden the reader" or be "distracting," or "inappropriate" (APA, 2010, p. 38-9).

Take a look at the A ppendices FAQ for more information. In this FAQ you will find the anatomy of an appendix, formatting guidelines, along with an example.

Want to learn more? Check out APA Academic Writer's Quick Guide on Appendices:

Learn how to write appendices, including what content to include in appendices, how to format them, and how to discuss them in the text.

Resources for Annotated Bibliographies, Abstracts, & Appendices

Annotated Bibliographies

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Use this rubric as a first step to self-assess your assignment . After determining which column you think best describes your work , use the resources to the right to improve your work . Refer back to it each time you feel you are near completion of the assignment to help you stay on track. This is also the same rubric that the Writing Lab staff will use to provide feedback and resources suggestions.

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After using the rubric to self-assess where you're at in terms of your assignment and you've made changes using the resources provided, you can opt to submit your assignment to the Writing Lab in Brainfuse for feedback and suggestions. Once you're logged into Brainfuse, click on the Writing Lab . How to use the Writing Lab .

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Q. What is the difference between an annotation and an abstract?

What is the difference between an annotation and an abstract? Answered By: Stormye Hendrix Last Updated: Aug 16, 2021

Annotations vs. abstracts.

Like those found in various journal article databases or those accompanying journal articles are usually just short, descriptive summaries of a work’s content. Like all summaries, abstracts cover the main points of a piece of writing and help you decide whether an article is relevant for your purposes.

Annotations (in a bibliography)

A list of sources that provides publication information and a short description of each source. The annotation typically perform two roles: it both describes the source and evaluates it. The description is typically that summary of the content and scope of the source. The evaluation goes further and discusses the source's authority, currency, and relevancy to a researcher's purpose.

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Bibliography Style with abstract and numbered references

How to get a bibliography style that generates numeric-style citation call-outs and typesets the contents of the abstract fields of bibliographic entries?

2 Answers 2

You seem to want a numeric style, biblatex offers some variations on your classical version, namely numeric-comp and numeric-verb .

The abstract field is by default not included in the bibliography output, but we can easily add it using

Where the first line takes care of a nice formatting.

1 I wonder why the standard styles don't use the abstract field? ;-) Thanks for answering. – Johannes_B Jun 21, 2015 at 14:38

I know it's fairly late now. I just want to tack on an 'improvement' to @moewe 's answer. This way nothing is done if the abstract field is undefined, say for a dictionary entry or something. It also puts a period ( \finentrypunct ) at the end of the previous line before printing the abstract.

I use something like the above, including a new toggle coupled with \newcommand to have the ability to selectivity to turn abstracts on for a particular bibliography, say personal publications in a thesis as an example, or turn it on globally at the package load with printabstract=true .

2 You can additionally make printabstract an entry option ( \DeclareEntryOption ). The logic in finentry can be shortened using \ifboolexpr{ not test {\iffieldundef{abstract}} and togl {bbx:printabstract} } (or something along those lines, I didn't test it) – moewe Nov 16, 2015 at 6:58

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Information Technology (UNH Manchester): Writing Abstracts and Annotated Bibliographies

Abstract Writing Tips

"An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement that describes a larger work. Components vary according to discipline; an abstract of a social science or scientific work may contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of the work. An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis, background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage." - The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Annotated Bibliography Tips

"An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited." - Reference Department, Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University.

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3 easy steps for writing an interesting and informative science fair abstract

April 30, 2018 3 min read science fair project

You have worked for over a month researching, developing, and performing your science fair project.

Your board is all ready to go.

Your talk is prepared.

But as you look at the science fair requirements you read the following:

Your entry information should include your name and age along with the title of your project and an abstract limited to a maximum of 250 words.

How in the world are you going to fit a months' worth of work into 250 words?

Relax - I'm here today to share how to write a science fair abstract in three easy steps. Once you finish, you'll have a well-crafted, 250-words-or-less summary of your science fair project.

How to Write a Science Fair Abstract

Step 1 - Develop the Words

To begin the process of writing an abstract for your science fair, you need to answer several questions about your project.

Here are the five key questions:

At this point, your answers need to include all the pertinent information, but still be as brief as possible.

Step 2 - Write the Draft

Now that you have answered the above questions, you need to write the first draft of your abstract.

Basically, you need to take your answers and add a few transitions to make it all flow into one paragraph.

As you write the draft, don't worry about the word count. You will whittle things down in the next step.

Step 3 - Whittle it Down

Now that you have a draft to work with, it is simply a matter of crossing out any unnecessary words until you have between 100 and 250 words in the abstract.

Here are a few tips on things to avoid in the final draft of your abstract:

The final abstract should be an easy-to-read, short summary of the science fair project you did.

A Sample Abstract

Here is an abstract from our daughter's project to give you an idea of what it can look like:

I was fascinated by an experiment we recently did on using an acid to plate copper on a nail. I wanted to explore the topic further, which was why I chose to study how the pH of an acid affects copper plating. After some research, I guessed that the lower the pH the more copper would be deposited on the nail. For my experiment, I made several different solutions of acid with pH’s ranging from 1 to 7. Then, I placed the pennies in each jar overnight. After that, I took out the penny and replaced it with the nail in each jar and observed what happened over three days. The nail in the solution with a pH of 1 was completely dissolved. The nail in the solution with a pH of 2 was partially dissolved. The nail in the solution with a pH of 3 had a fair amount of copper plated on it. The nail in the solution with a pH of 5 had a bit of copper. The nail in the solution with a pH of 7 was unaffected. I learned that the pH of the acid solution is important to copper plating, but unlike my hypothesis, it needs to be around pH of 3 to be the most effective.

Wrapping it up

Develop your words.

Write your draft.

Whittle it down.

Follow these three easy steps and you'll have an easy-to-read summary of your science fair project.

Need some help getting started with your project?

Check out our step-by-step science fair guide or listen to the science fair project challenge!

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How do I cite an abstract?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

Very few circumstances call for citing an abstract.

Never cite an abstract as a short-cut, a way of avoiding reading and citing the full published work. This is akin to citing the summary of a work that you would find on a book jacket or on a site like CliffsNotes . If you cite an abstract in lieu of the work it summarizes, you are shortchanging both the author and yourself: you are not accurately representing the author’s complete work, which may contain key information that is missing from the abstract, and you lose the experience of reading and engaging with the author’s extended argument and the evidence that supports it.

If you are doing most of your research online, it may be tempting to cite an abstract because many online journals and databases allow you to see an article’s abstract but won’t let you read the full article without a subscription. When you run into this barrier, you’ll have to access the full article some other way—either in hard copy at a library or through a university or other institution’s subscription to an online database that contains the essay in full.

It only makes sense to cite an abstract if you are writing about the abstract as an abstract and not about the work it summarizes: for instance, if you are writing about different styles of writing abstracts used in the sciences and humanities.

If you do need to create a works-cited-list entry for an abstract, follow the MLA format template . List the author of the abstract followed by a description in place of a title. Then list the title of the publication in which the abstract appears as the title of the container. Then list the publication details:

“One abstract effectively piques the reader’s interest with its opening question: ‘What does it mean to be a reader of a novel?'”(Ong). Work Cited Ong, Yi-Ping. Abstract of “Anna Karenina Reads on the Train: Readerly Subjectivity and the Poetics of the Novel.” PMLA , vol. 133, no. 5, Oct. 2018, p. 1302.

You will find an example of a justifiable, and necessary, citation of an abstract in a recent Style Center post that discusses how to write an abstract .

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / How to write abstracts in MLA

How to write abstracts in MLA

Abstracts are usually between 100-250 words or around 5-7 sentences depending on the type. They can include short descriptions of your motivations, objective, methods, findings, discussion, and conclusion of the paper. You can also include why you wrote the paper and why readers should be interested.

APA abstracts have different formatting from MLA abstracts, so do not to use their rules interchangeably.

Why do you need an abstract?

Abstracts allow for a quick summary of your paper for other researchers. Busy researchers don’t have time to read everything, so they rely on the abstract to help them decide whether or not they will read the paper.

Although MLA style doesn’t require an abstract, the MLA style abstract is the most commonly used style in the humanities. If you are writing a paper for a class in literature, religion, philosophy, or other similar subjects, you should use MLA style. Check with your professor to see if an abstract is required for your paper.

Different types of abstracts

There are two different types of abstracts: descriptive and informative.

How to write an abstract in MLA style

To write a high-quality abstract in MLA style, you will need an explanation of what research was done and what the outcomes were. Write in a clear, simple, and direct style. The abstract gives readers the information they need to decide whether to read the complete paper or not.

Here are some guidelines for writing a great abstract in MLA style:

Format for an MLA abstract

MLA abstract examples

Descriptive abstracts.

Informational abstracts

Example 1 on O’Neill’s “The Personal Public Sphere of Whitman’s 1840s Journalism.”

Works cited

Cannon, Christopher. “From Literacy to Literature: Elementary Learning and the Middle English Poet.”  PMLA , vol. 129, no. 3, 2014, pp. 349–364. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24769474.

MLA Handbook . 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

O’Neill, Bonnie Carr. “The Personal Public Sphere of Whitman’s 1840s Journalism.”  PMLA , vol. 126, no. 4, 2011, pp. 983–998.   JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/41414171.

Sealey-Morris, Gabriel. “The Rhetoric of the Paneled Page: Comics and Composition Pedagogy.”  Composition Studies , vol. 43, no. 1, 2015, pp. 31–50.   JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/43501877.

Wallace, Joseph. “How to Write an Abstract.” MLA Style Center , Modern Language Association of America, 5 Dec. 2018, style.mla.org/how-to-write-an-abstract/.

Published October 25, 2020. Updated July 18, 2021.

By Catherine Sigler. Catherine has a Ph.D. in English Education and has taught college-level writing for 15 years.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

Citation Examples

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How to Write a Regeneron ISEF Abstract

What is the purpose of the abstract.

The abstract should be a brief, yet comprehensive synopsis of the research project. It should seek to highlight the research question(s), experimental procedures, data, and conclusions in a way that is concise and easy to understand. It will be reviewed by Special Award Organization and Grand Award Judges to determine whether the project stands out within its category or qualifies for special awards. The general public and other Regeneron ISEF visitors read the abstract for a quick overview of the research design and findings.

Rules for completion:

The abstract should be 250 words or less. Do not discuss specific aspects of the research in great detail, including experimental procedures and statistical methods. Any information that is unnecessary to include in a brief explanation should be saved for the written research paper or the project exhibit board.

If the project is a continuation from a previous year, the abstract should summarize the current year’s work only. If mention of supporting research from previous year(s) is necessary, it must be minimal.

If the abstract text includes special characters, such as mathematical symbols, which won’t be translated electronically, please spell out the symbol.

Do not include acknowledgements in the abstract. This includes any references to mentors, institutional facilities, and awards or patents received.

All abstracts must be submitted on the Regeneron ISEF online system. Many regional and state fairs also use the Regeneron ISEF Official Abstract Form, which can be found here . This form is not necessary for most local fairs.

What should the abstract include?

Best practices:.

Remember- Revision is Key

Sample abstract

Please view the following example abstract, which is displayed two ways: In paragraph form, as will be presented at the Regeneron ISEF, and divided in parts to show how it would fit the general abstract template.

Snot Science: How far does a sneeze travel?

Bethany Brookshire, Ph.D.

Science News for Students, Society for Science & the Public, Washington, D.C.

Viruses, such as those that cause colds and influenza, spread via droplets of mucus that are produced when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Using thick and thin mucus and a model sneeze, we tested the hypothesis that thin mucus will travel farther than thick mucus.

Thin and thick mucus were represented by 1-milliliter volumes of colored water or a mixture of corn syrup and gelatin, respectively. Fluid was squirted from a plastic dropper with enough force to model a sneeze. Each sample was analyzed for maximum distance traveled and distribution of droplets. Data was analyzed using a two-tailed t test.

Compared to thick mucus (mean distance of 110.8 cm, SD 103.7 cm, n=26/group), thin mucus squirted a greater mean distance (302.4 cm, SD 45.06 cm, n=26/group, p<0.0001, Cohen’s d 2.395). Thick mucus traveled a maximum of 310 cm. Thin mucus traveled a maximum of 400 cm. Thick mucus also formed fewer visible droplets, and droplets concentrated closer to the origin of the “sneeze.”

This study showed that thin mucus travels farther than thin mucus in the plastic dropper sneeze model. Thin mucus traveled a maximum of 400 cm, suggesting a potential spread of virus-containing particles of up to 4 meters in our tests. Further experiments will clarify differences in viscosity between thick and thin mucus and potential differences in droplet size.

Purpose: Viruses, such as those that cause colds and influenza, spread via droplets of mucus that are produced when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Using thick and thin mucus and a model sneeze, we tested the hypothesis that thin mucus will travel farther than thick mucus.

Procedure: Thin and thick mucus were represented by 1-milliliter volumes of colored water or a mixture of corn syrup and gelatin, respectively. Fluid was squirted from a plastic dropper with enough force to model a sneeze. Each sample was analyzed for maximum distance traveled and distribution of droplets. Data was analyzed using a two-tailed t test.

Results: Compared to thick mucus (mean distance of 110.8 cm, SD 103.7 cm, n=26/group), thin mucus squirted a greater mean distance (302.4 cm, SD 45.06 cm, n=26/group, p<0.0001, Cohen’s d 2.395). Thick mucus traveled a maximum of 310 cm. Thin mucus traveled a maximum of 400 cm. Thick mucus also formed fewer visible droplets, and droplets concentrated closer to the origin of the “sneeze.”

Conclusions: This study showed that thin mucus travels farther than thin mucus in the plastic dropper sneeze model. Thin mucus traveled a maximum of 400 cm, suggesting a potential spread of virus-containing particles of up to 4 meters in our tests. Further experiments will clarify differences in viscosity between thick and thin mucus and potential differences in droplet size.

Works consulted

Cole, John. (2008). Mastering the Abstract Writing Process.

Caprette, David. (1995, August 25). How to Write a Research Paper. Retrieved from Rice

University, Experimental Biosciences Web site: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html#abstract

Carroll, Leah. HOW TO WRITE AN ABSTRACT: Tips and Samples. Retrieved from University of

California Berkeley, Office of Undergraduate Research Web site: http://hsp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/HOW%20TO%20WRITE%20AN%20ABST…

The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Writing Abstracts. Retrieved from:

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/writing-abstracts/

Annotated Bibliographies

Want to know even more about abstracts and annotations?

See Eastern Nazarene College's great " Annotated Bibliography Guide " (our guide is based on this).

Annotations v. Abstracts

An Abstract and an Annotation are NOT the same thing!

An ABSTRACT precedes the journal article and is a summary of the main points or topics the article will discuss. The abstract is written by the author of the article, or an editor, and is intended to help you decide whether or not the work is relevant enough for you to read in full.

An example of an abstract - taken from an article found in Academic Search Complete - is shown below.

Isn't an annotation also a short description of the work?

Yes, but annotations serve a different function from that of abstracts.

ANNOTATIONS are evaluations of sources written by someone researching a topic. An annotation will describe the work and may give the background of its author, but they also critique the resource and explain its strengths and weaknesses.

To sum up: an abstract is an author/editor written preview of their own work; an annotation is a description and evaluation of the work written by a student, researcher, or scholar.

Confused? Let's think about it this way:

MOVIE TRAILERS vs. MOVIE REVIEWS

When a movie is released, the movie studio puts out a trailer (and some billboards) that advertise the movie to us. These previews aim to give us a taste of what the movie is about in order to encourage us to go see the entire film. A movie trailer is the film world's version of an abstract.

Movies are also reviewed by columnists at the New York Times and other papers, as well as by movie fans on blogs and on social media. These reviewers provide us with an overview of the film's plot, some background on its director and cast, and a critique of the film as a whole. As a movie review is a description and evaluation of a film, it functions like an annotation.

How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project

When conducting a science fair project , it is important that you keep track of all the sources you use in your research. This includes books, magazines, journals, and Web sites. You will need to list these source materials in a bibliography . Bibliographic information is typically written in either Modern Language Association ( MLA ) or American Psychological Association (APA) format. Be sure to check with your science project instruction sheet in order to find out which method is required by your instructor. Use the format advised by your instructor.

Key Takeaways

Here's How:

MLA: Magazine

MLA: Website

MLA Examples:

APA: Magazine

APA: Web site

APA Examples:

The bibliography formats used in this listing are based on the MLA 8th Edition and APA 6th Edition.

Science Fair Projects

For additional information about science fair projects, see:

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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

Evaluating Bibliographic Citations

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Evaluating sources of information is an important step in any research activity. This section provides information on evaluating bibliographic citations, aspects of evaluation, reading evaluation, print vs. online sources, and evaluating Internet sources.

A bibliographic citation provides relevant information about the author and publication as well as a short summary of the text, usually known as the abstract. Depending on where you find your information, the bibliographic citation will vary.

Before you spend a lot of time reading a source, begin by looking at the following information in the citation to evaluate whether it's worth pursuing.

Consider the author, the title of the work, the summary, where it is (e.g., a book, an academic journal, a blog, a social media site), and the timeliness of the entry. You may also want to look at the keywords to see what other categories the work falls into. Evaluate this information to see if it is relevant and valid for your research.

Library Catalog

When searching for sources in a library catalog, the bibliographic citation will often include the author, the publisher, and the physical location of the source in the library (see image below). Using a library catalog is helpful if you are looking for print sources for your research.

This image shows a collection of books on the Purdue Library search engine, each with bibliographic information displayed under the book's title.

Example of bibliographic citations in a library catalog.

Once you find the bibliographic citation, take a look at the author and the publisher. Has this author published other works? Does the publisher list other publications on their website? If you are still uncertain about the credibility, locate the physical source and read bits of it to see if it contains information that’s relevant to your research.

Online Databases

When searching for information in online databases such as EbscoHost or ProQuest , you will most likely find a bibliographic citation entry beneath the title of the source.

This image shows a set of academic research papers found via the ProQuest Research Library search engine, each accompanied by bibliographic information.

Examples of bibliographic citations in an online database.

If a summary or abstract is not available in the preview, often you can click on the source and view more details (see image below).

This image shows a specific research paper landing page found via the ProQuest Research Library search engine. This page displays more detailed information than the general search results page shown above.

Sample extended bibliographic citation and abstract.

Different websites contain different levels of bibliographic citations. Sometimes it’s possible to find complete author information, while other times you may simply have a username or an author’s initials.

Most websites list the available author information directly under the title of the article or at the bottom of the article.

This image shows the beginning of an online magazine-style article. The author's name is clearly displayed beneath the headline.

Sometimes a website does not list an author. If this is the case, it’s important to determine whether the website itself seems credible. If the website is associated with a print publication, or is from a well-known organization, it is probably credible. However, you should read the article to determine whether the information seems valid. On the next page you will find more strategies for determining whether a source is credible.

This image shows the beginning of an online magazine-style article. A generic attribution to the publication's staff is displayed beneath the headline.

Understanding the differences in bibliographic citations is an important step as you search for sources to include in your research.

How to Cite Abstracts

Last Updated: July 1, 2021

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Jennifer Mueller is a wikiHow Content Creator. She specializes in reviewing, fact-checking, and evaluating wikiHow's content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. Jennifer holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006. This article has been viewed 42,354 times. Learn more...

Scholarly articles have abstracts available online that provide a summary of the article and conclusions reached in it. Usually, you should try to get the full article to read and use as a source. However, if you decide to use the abstract itself as a source, you need a citation for it. The format of your citation differs depending on whether you're using the Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), or Chicago citation style.

Example: Oziewicz, Marek.

Example: Oziewicz, Marek. "Restorative Justice Scripts in Ursula K. LeGuin's Voices ."

Example: Oziewicz, Marek. "Restorative Justice Scripts in Ursula K. LeGuin's Voices ." Children's Literature in Education , vol. 42, no. 1, 2011, pp. 33-43.

MLA Works Cited Format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal , vol. x, no. x, Year, pp. xx-xx. Database or Website Name , DOI or URL, Abstract.

Example: Paterson, P. (2008).

Example: Paterson, P. (2008). How well do young offenders with Asperger Syndrome cope in custody?: Two prison case studies [Abstract].

Example: Paterson, P. (2008). How well do young offenders with Asperger Syndrome cope in custody?: Two prison case studies [Abstract]. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 36 (1), 54-58.

APA Reference List Format

Full text available: Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article in sentence-case: Subtitle of article [Abstract]. Title of Journal, Volume (Issue#), xx-xx.

Full text unavailable: Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article in sentence-case: Subtitle of article. Title of Journal, Volume (Issue#), xx-xx. Abstract retrieved from Database Name (doi).

Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article in sentence-case: Subtitle of article. Title of Journal, Volume (Issue#), xx-xx. Abstract retrieved from URL.

Example: Seth A. Givens,

Example: Seth A. Givens, "Liberating the Germans: The US Army and Looting in Germany during the Second World War," abstract,

Example: Seth A. Givens, "Liberating the Germans: The US Army and Looting in Germany during the Second World War," abstract, War in History 21 , no. 1 (January 2014): 33,

Example: Seth A. Givens, "Liberating the Germans: The US Army and Looting in Germany during the Second World War," abstract, War in History 21 , no. 1 (January 2014): 33, doi:10.1177/0968344513504521.

Chicago Footnote Format

First Name Last Name, "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article," abstract, Title of Journal Volume# , no. x (Month Year): Page#, doi/URL.

Expert Q&A

Avoid citing an abstract if the full text of the article is available. If you don't have access to the article, talk to your instructor or to a research librarian. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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How to write an abstract and improve your article

About this module.

There are plenty of good reasons why you should invest time and energy in writing your abstract. It will form the basis for several key decisions: whether an editor sends out your submission for review; whether the reviewer accepts that review invitation; and whether other researchers read your published paper. Unless your article is open access, the title and abstract are the only elements freely available to everyone. Don’t forget, the more your article is read, the greater the chance it will be cited in further research papers! So, getting your abstract right is important.

In this interactive module, we answer common questions from early career researchers including what is the ideal length for an abstract? How much detail should I include? And, what kind of language works best?

You will come away with an understanding of the role the abstract can play in your paper’s success and the actions you can take to ensure it is the very best it can be.

About the presenter

Publisher, Elsevier

Hannah has 15 years’ experience in the STM publishing industry working directly with researchers, journal editors, reviewers and academic societies. As Senior Product Manager for the Journal Finder, Hannah is responsible for ensuring researchers can easily and quickly find the right home for their research first time around. This includes helping researchers to define and build a publishing plan during the pre-submission phase and making sure that if a researcher does find their manuscript is not accepted for publication at a journal, then a suitable alternative transfer option is offered.

From article to art: Creating visual abstracts

Structuring your article correctly

Guide to reference managers: How to effectively manage your references

How to prepare your manuscript

How to prepare a proposal for review article

How to prepare a proposal for a review article

Writing a scientific paper: from clutter to clarity, elements of style for writing scientific journal articles, preparing to write for an interdisciplinary journal, how to publish in scholarly journals, how to get published, how to write an abstract slides.

Elsevier Early Career Resources -- Advice for young and ambitious scientists

Elsevier Early Career Resources -- Look for the seed of brilliance

How to Write Great Papers (workshop on edition & publication)

Social Sciences & Humanities Open

ISSN: 2590-2911

How to write a great abstract for your academic manuscript

September 2020

You’ve collected your data, analyzed your findings, written your manuscript, and all that’s left to do before you submit your paper is to write the abstract. Quick and easy, right? But wait!

Despite the fact that abstracts are the most visible and highly-read component of nearly all academic articles, many authors treat them as an afterthought. However, a strong abstract is essential to ensuring your paper has the largest impact and readership possible, and to facilitate fast and appropriate peer review. At Social Sciences and Humanities Open, we recommend viewing your abstract as a publication in itself, where the goal is to condense the key information from your article into a clear, concise form.

We understand that for many researchers, writing a strong abstract can be a daunting ask. This resource is designed to help authors who would like to submit to Social Sciences and Humanities Open understand the importance of writing excellent abstracts, key components to include in their abstracts, and common errors to avoid when writing up.

Why should authors take the time to write a stellar abstract?

Great Abstracts Increase Readership

Researchers publish articles in order to disseminate knowledge to other academics, practitioners, and decision-makers. However, before these audiences download, read, and cite your paper, they read your abstract. In fact, the majority of readers will only read your abstract. There are hundreds of thousands of journal articles published every year, published in thousands of academic journals. To deal with this flood of information, researchers have become very discerning when choosing the articles to which they’ll devote their limited attention. Abstracts are how they decide which articles to read, and which to ignore .

Articles which feature accurate, informative, well-written abstracts are more likely to be read, shared, and cited than articles which have incomplete or careless abstracts. Think of the abstract as your chance to pitch your article to the reader: y our goal as an author is for your abstract to be so clear and compelling that readers will be excited to click through, download, read, and cite the full article.

Clearly-Outlined Abstracts Speed Up the Editorial Process

All researchers want fast, quality, and helpful peer reviews, and writing strong abstracts are a simple way authors can help enhance the editorial process. Like most journals, peer reviewers for Social Sciences and Humanities Open are invited to read your abstract— not the full article— before deciding whether they’d like to review your paper. Reviewers use your abstract to identify if your area of research, theoretical framework and methods are aligned with their own research ; failing to include this critical information in the abstract can lead to mis-matched peer reviews and less helpful feedback.

Reviewers are also more likely to accept invitations to review papers which address interesting research questions and are generally well-wr itten . Your abstract is your opportunity to demonstrate to reviewers that your research article is interesting, carefully considered, compelling, and worth their time to review. If you’re successful in writing an abstract which is enticing to reviewers, our editorial team will need to invite fewer individuals to read your paper, leading to faster turnaround times for comments and decisions.

What is included in a strong abstract?

Understanding the importance of abstracts can make writing them feel like an overwhelming task. Luckily for authors, nearly all effective abstracts contain the same information, and it is relatively simple to ensure your abstract contains the necessary components. While the expectations of abstracts vary between academic disciplines, we generally expect to see the following components in abstracts submitted to Social Sciences and Humanities Open.

We do not suggest you include these components as distinct sections or headers in your abstract. Instead, we recommend you write your abstract as a single block-style paragraph . However, when writing and proofreading your abstract, use the following checklist to ensure you have included the necessary information for your audience:

Background and research question(s)

In one or two sentences, give your readers a very broad understanding of the need-to-know background information for your study, and how your paper will contribute to this knowledge. You may want to explicitly include your research question in this section; make sure it is concise and to-the-point!

Theoretical or conc eptual framework

Readers should, upon reading your abstract, generally understand your epistemological and theoretical approach to your research problem. This is particularly important in fields which are dominated by canonical theorists! In one or two sentences, outline the theoretical or conceptual framework you use in your paper.

Research Design and Methodology

Your abstract should include an outline of how your study was conducted through a short description of your research design and methodology. Include, if relevant, your sample size, methods for analysis, and the duration of the study. Do not mention very specific details such as what statistical software was used for analysis or include citations for your methodological approach.

The majority of your audience reads abstracts because they are interested in the results of published research. As such, the results section should be the longest component of your abstract. In three to six sentences, describe the key findings of your study in the order they are discussed in the manuscript. Aim to clearly describe how your results answer your research questions(s). Include as much detail as possible and remember to report negative findings. If relevant, be sure to include p-values for statistical tests.

Implications

Provide readers a few key points regarding the implications of your study that you describe in your paper—both for your academic field, and, if applicable, for the communities your research involves. One to two sentences here is sufficient for this section.

What are some common pitfalls to avoid when writing an abstract?

Too wordy, or not detailed enough

Social Sciences and Humanities Open does not have a strict word limit for abstracts. Ideally, however, your abstract will fall between 150 and 400 words. Generally speaking, abstracts shorter than 150 words do not contain enough information to properly summarize and present the research to the audience. Abstracts longer than 400 words, on the other hand, often contain too much information, and could likely benefit from a copy-edit to remove unnecessary sentences and phrases. Refer to the list above to ensure that you are including all necessary information in your abstract, and also that you are including only necessary information.

Repeats the i ntroduction

Our editors often receive manuscripts with abstracts which are copied-and-pasted from the paper’s introduction section. Don’t be one of these authors! The requirements of an abstract are very different from the requirements of an introduction. Not only will an abstract which is copied-and-pasted from your introduction not provide the necessary information to your readers, it will suggest a lack of care to your editors and reviewers—something authors should do their best to avoid!

I ncludes r eferences, j argon, and a cronyms

The abstract should be written as a stand-alone document, and should also be understandable to non-specialist audiences. Many writers aim for their abstracts to be written at a level that would be understandable for first- or second-year undergraduate students in their fields. For this reason, it is recommended that authors exclude including references, jargon, and acronyms in their abstracts. If you feel you must include a reference (for example, if your analytical framework depends on a canonical work), try to limit the number of them, and be sure to cite the author and date. If included, acronyms should be written in full the first time they are introduced in the abstract.

Grammatical Errors and Typos

Nothing turns a prospective reader or reviewer off from your article like typos, grammatical errors, passive voice, and unclear phrasing. Authors should take as much care in ensuring their abstracts are professionally presented as they do for the rest of their manuscript. We recommend doing several rounds of copy-editing before submitting your abstract, to ensure it reads as clearly and professionally as possible.

Now, get writing that abstract!

Now that you know why you want a strong abstract, the key elements to include, and common mistakes to avoid, it’s time to write! Just as you produced several drafts of your manuscript before it was ready to submit, don’t be surprised if your abstract takes time and many rounds of edits before it’s complete. For authors unsure about the quality of their abstract, we recommend asking a non-specialist friend or colleague to read it over. Is your reader able to tell you, in broad terms, what your study was about and its contributions? Did they understand the language you used? Were all of your sentences typo-free? And, perhaps most importantly, were they interested in reading your full paper? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you’re ready to submit!

The editorial team at SSHO developed this guide to help de-mystify the requirements and process of writing a stellar abstract for researchers. We hope this tool will assist SSHO authors with producing informative and attractive abstracts that will highlight their important research contributions, and allow their research to reach large and broad audiences. We can’t wait to read your abstracts!

IMAGES

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Abstract vs annotated bibliography
Abstract vs annotated bibliography
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Abstract vs annotated bibliography
Annotated bibliography sample reference

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Annotated Bibliography
3 easy bibliography designs for project #shorts
2021 Annotated Bibliography--Annotations
CO Annotated Bibliography Overview
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Predicting and Defining B2B Sales Success with Machine Learning

COMMENTS

APA Abstract (2020)
An APA abstract is a comprehensive summary of your paper in which you briefly address the research problem, hypotheses, methods, results, and implications of your research. It's placed on a separate page right after the title page and is usually no longer than 250 words.
Abstract & Annotated Bibliography
Abstract A brief summary of the research contents Provides quick information about the topic including problem, methodology, participants (if any), findings, and conclusion. Qualities of a good abstract: Accurate Non-evaluative Coherent and readable Active Voice Present verb tense to describe conclusions
Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper
An abstract is a short summary of your (published or unpublished) research paper, usually about a paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes: an abstract lets readers get the gist or essence of your paper or article quickly, in order to decide whether to read the full paper;
General Format
Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced.
How to Write a Science Fair Project Abstract
An abstract is an abbreviated version of your science fair project final report. For most science fairs it is limited to a maximum of 250 words (check the rules for your competition). The science fair project abstract appears at the beginning of the report as well as on your display board.
Annotated Bibliographies, Abstracts, & Appendices
An annotated bibliography is the full citation of a source followed by notes and commentary about a source. The word "annotate" means "critical or explanatory notes" and the word "bibliography" means "a list of sources". Annotations are meant to be critical in addition to being descriptive.
Abstract and Bibliography final copy
Abstract and Bibliography. Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Instructor Course Date. 2. Abstract and Bibliography This paper evaluates the case of Darrell, who is 44 years old African American man. The case study depicts that middle-class parents raised Darrell, and at 12, he started drinking alcohol.
What is the difference between an annotation and an abstract?
Like all summaries, abstracts cover the main points of a piece of writing and help you decide whether an article is relevant for your purposes. Annotations (in a bibliography) A list of sources that provides publication information and a short description of each source.
Bibliography Style with abstract and numbered references
The abstract field is by default not included in the bibliography output, but we can easily add it using \DeclareFieldFormat{abstract}{\par\small#1} \renewbibmacro*{finentry}{\printfield{abstract}\finentry} Where the first line takes care of a nice formatting.
Writing Abstracts and Annotated Bibliographies
An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis, background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage."
3 easy steps for writing a science fair abstract
Here are a few tips on things to avoid in the final draft of your abstract: Technical terms or abbreviations Direct quotes (there is no bibliography for an abstract) Referring to graphs or charts (again, there are no graphs or charts in your abstract) Things that have happened a year or more in the past
How to write an APA abstract
An APA abstract is a short summary designed to help a reader decide if they are going to read the entire paper. An effective abstract will communicate your hypothesis, method, and results while also creating credibility for yourself as the author. An abstract will also make it easier for new readers to find your work.
How do I cite an abstract?
If you do need to create a works-cited-list entry for an abstract, follow the MLA format template. List the author of the abstract followed by a description in place of a title. Then list the title of the publication in which the abstract appears as the title of the container. Then list the publication details:
How to write abstracts in MLA
Abstracts are usually between 100-250 words or around 5-7 sentences depending on the type. They can include short descriptions of your motivations, objective, methods, findings, discussion, and conclusion of the paper. You can also include why you wrote the paper and why readers should be interested.
How to Write an ISEF Abstract
The abstract should be a brief, yet comprehensive synopsis of the research project. It should seek to highlight the research question(s), experimental procedures, data, and conclusions in a way that is concise and easy to understand. ... The Regeneron ISEF abstract does not include a bibliography. The Regeneron ISEF requires the bibliography as ...
LibGuides: Annotated Bibliographies: Annotations vs. Abstracts
An ABSTRACT precedes the journal article and is a summary of the main points or topics the article will discuss. The abstract is written by the author of the article, or an editor, and is intended to help you decide whether or not the work is relevant enough for you to read in full.
How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project
Always make sure to use the correct format, whether MLA or APA, specified in the instructions that you receive for completing your science fair project. Here's How: MLA: Book Write the author's last name, first name and middle name or initial. End with a period. Write the title of the book in italics followed by a period.
Evaluating Bibliographic Citations
A bibliographic citation provides relevant information about the author and publication as well as a short summary of the text, usually known as the abstract. Depending on where you find your information, the bibliographic citation will vary.
3 Ways to Cite Abstracts
Start your footnote with the first and last name of the author. In Chicago style, abstracts only need to be cited in the footnotes of your paper, not in the bibliography. Place a superscript number at the end of any sentence in which you quoted or paraphrased the abstract.
EndNote: Abstract is showing in bibliography
To change this, you just need to format the bibliography and select an output style that doesn't include the abstract. To do this: Word 2007 with EndNote X and earlier: Go to the Add-Ins tab and choose "EndNote > Format Bibliography." Word 2008 / 2011 with EndNote X5 and later: Go to the "Tools" Menu and choose "EndNote > Bibliography Settings."
Child Development: Abstracts and Bibliography
Presented are 211 abstracts of articles from journals and books on the subjects of Biology, including Infancy; Developmental and Comparative Psychology; Experimental Psychology including Learning Phenomena; Sociology and Social Psychology; Education, Educational Psychology, and Counseling; and Psyciatry, Clinical Psychology, and other Clinical Studies.
PDF Abstract and Keywords Guide, APA Style 7th Edition
determine whether to include an abstract and/or keywords. ABSTRACT: The abstract needs to provide a brief but comprehensive summary of the contents of your paper. It provides an overview of the paper and helps readers decide whether to read the full text. Limit your abstract to 250 words. 1. Abstract Content . The abstract addresses the following
Elsevier Researcher Academy
There are plenty of good reasons why you should invest time and energy in writing your abstract. It will form the basis for several key decisions: whether an editor sends out your submission for review; whether the reviewer accepts that review invitation; and whether other researchers read your published paper. Unless your article is open access, the title and abstract are the only elements ...
How to write a great abstract for your academic manuscript
Generally speaking, abstracts shorter than 150 words do not contain enough information to properly summarize and present the research to the audience. Abstracts longer than 400 words, on the other hand, often contain too much information, and could likely benefit from a copy-edit to remove unnecessary sentences and phrases.