Things you must never include in an abstract

You abstract is a summary of your research and it has to be created effectively in the specified word limit. It is a challenge that you have to combine all important elements of your research into one paragraph which would be approximately 250 words or perhaps even less, can be very challenging. You must be knowing what all are the important components of an abstract, but here we tell you the important things you must NOT include in your abstract:

  1. The abstract should not contain detailed background information as it is the learning ground for your own research and not the work of other researchers
  2. It must not include citations for reason mentioned above, as you must only and only talk of your research in your abstract
  3. Do not give details of complicated and lengthy laboratory procedures as they should be made a part of the main document and not the abstract
  4. If it isn’t the focus of the study, you must not give the details in  the abstract about the statistical methods and software used
  5. Most of the journals do not allow the use of abbreviations and acronyms in abstract else they give a list of common abbreviations and acronyms that can be included and do not need definition. So do keep that in mind.
  6. If you have any results or interpretations that you have not discussed in the  document then you must not give any mention of it in the abstract

Once the abstract has been completed, check thoroughly and tally that all that you have included in the abstract matches well with the information that you have included in the main text. It is understandable that when you have worked on a document for a very long time it can be a challenge to give an objective evaluation regarding the clarity of the content as by then you have a strong understanding and familiarity with the concept and what you may find simple may not be simple for s novice reader in your area of research. The best way to judge this is to give it someone from another discipline and see if it becomes as clear to them as you expect. If you are able to determine areas which need revision or enhancement, do work on them after that to complete the abstract.

Category : Research Writing
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