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How to Write an Abstract

How to Write an Abstract. The abstract sells your talk/paper It has to convince the reader to keep reading the rest of the attached paper or to attend your talk. Parts of the abstract. Each section should be a sentence or two. Motivation: Why do we care about the problem and the results?

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How to Write an Abstract

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  1. How to Write an Abstract The abstract sells your talk/paper It has to convince the reader to keep reading the rest of the attached paper or to attend your talk

  2. Parts of the abstract Each section should be a sentence or two Motivation: • Why do we care about the problem and the results? • If the problem isn't obviously "interesting" you need to put motivation firs • This section should include the importance of your work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful.

  3. Problem statement: • What problem are you trying to solve? • What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach, or a specific situation)?

  4. Approach: • How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem? • Did you develop new methods, collected data using existing tools, used analytical models, or analyzed field data? • What was the extent of your work ?

  5. Results: • What's the answer? • Put the result there, in numbers. Avoid vague, hand-waving results such as "very", "small", or "significant." • You should not provide numbers that can be easily misinterpreted, but on the other hand you don't have room for all the caveats.

  6. Conclusions: • What are the implications of your answer? • Is it going to change the world or simply serve as a road sign indicating that this path is a waste of time? • This discussion need not be lengthy, but it should convincingly convey that your research has significant implications

  7. Things to consider: • Select a clear, informative title that contains all the key elements of your presentation • Meet the word count limitation. Try to come as close as possible to the word limit without going over. • Select the key references only. Cite at least one "classic" (i.e., canonical but not antique) reference and one "cutting-edge" recent reference. • Be precise and detailed about your argument and analysis. • Never simply say "Results of the study will be discussed" • State what the results are and why they matter.

  8. Tips to consider: • Think of a half-dozen search phrases and keywords that people looking for your work might use. Be sure that those exact phrases appear in your abstract, so that they will turn up at the top of a search result listing. • "keywords" • are used to facilitate keyword index searches, on-line abstract text searching • are used to assign papers to review committees or editors.

  9. Your abstract for this class: • Will have < 250 words • Is due on Wednesday before your presentation – please e-mail it to the class • Will count as 20% of your final grade • Will be e-mailed to the department together with an invitation to attend your presentation • Will be evaluated by your peers and returned to you

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