Summing It Up In a Dissertation Abstract
March 26th, 2009Do you want to know how to write a Dissertation Abstract?
A dissertation abstract is the summary of your work. As you know, dissertations are typically very lengthy and the introduction is not enough to give the reader a complete picture of your study or thesis. So, an abstract must be provided along with the dissertation. A dissertation abstract must also be written in such a way that it can stand alone. If say a research must be chosen for a presentation, an abstract will be used as the basis for selection.
Indexing is yet another purpose for writing an abstract. So having an abstract for your dissertation is also useful in case you wish to make your paper available on line. There are many websites that allow you to buy essays or dissertations. Most of these websites only have the abstract posted; Some only have the essay topics available. It really varies. In any case, you must remember that abstracts posted or otherwise are covered by the copy right law and must not be plagiarized.
So if you want to learn how to write a dissertation abstract, there are several things you must remember. What makes a good abstract then?
1)Although it is meant to be more understandable and more simple than the complex dissertation research itself, the language must still be formal. Languages have many levels ranging from casual, informal to formal. It is important that you make the level of language as well as your tone consistent.
2)It must give a good overview of the research. What was the purpose of the study? What makes the dissertation relevant? What was achieved by the thesis? In other words, you must state the problem, why you think this problem is of particular significance, how you arrived at your conclusions and what your conclusions are.
3)An abstract has to be short. It should be in the neighborhood of 200 hundred words.
4)Try not to be vague. An introduction can be a tease, in a way that would make any reader flip through but an abstract must be concise and clear.
Abstracts are used for different types of papers. Scientific and Business papers both require abstracts. Broadly though, there are two kinds of abstracts: first, a descriptive abstract and second, an informative abstract.
The first type, the descriptive abstract, tends to be much shorter whereas as the other type, the informative abstract is expected to be longer (but still about 250 -300 words long). Another difference is that the descriptive abstract sometimes does not include the conclusion. It fully describes your work without the implications of your study. The informative abstract, on the other hand, should include as much as vital information as possible including the conclusion and its possible implications. It may also include some recommendations of the writer. Actually, descriptive abstracts are rare and there is a greater chance that your professor would expect you to do an informative abstract.
It may be quite hard to write a dissertation abstract but I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice. So you had better start figuring out how you can sum up pages and pages of dissertation writing into a few paragraphs while making it as informative as possible.
Related Posts
Tags: Add new tag, buy essays, college essays, dissertation abstract, dissertation guide, Dissertation Writing, English essay, essay topics, help with essay writing, student essay, thesis abstract