Abstract Writing Workshop

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Abstract Writing Workshop By Prateek
Gupta Email pgupta3_at_uic.edu
And by the way, everything in life is writable if
you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the
imagination to improvise. - Sylvia Plath
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Outline

• Purpose of an abstract
• Elements of a good abstracts
• Its all about English
• Questions

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Purpose of an abstract

• Reasons for writing an abstract
• Your sales pitch to the reader, enticing them to
  want to get a better understanding of the work
  that was done
• To gain a better understanding of what are the
  important factors of the research
• Reinforce the your ability to concise
• Obtain a better understanding of the research
  that was done

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Purpose of an abstract (cont)

• Readers reasons for reading an abstract
• Summary of the work that was done for the
  particular project
• Efficient way to go through a large amount of
  information
• To determine if further understanding of the
  research is needed
• Abstracts act as an archive if the reader wants
  to study the project later

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Elements of a good abstracts

• Always read the submission instructions!!
• Abstract length can vary, sometimes they are
  required to be less than 100 words and other
  times they are required to be less than 300
  words,so it important to be concise
• Know audience that will be reading the abstract
• Good abstracts should have the following
  information (usually in the specified order as
  well) the importance of the work, what was the
  hypothesis, how you examined hypothesis, the
  results and conclusions
• Abstract should be coherent

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Sample abstract 1
Characterizing the adsorption of water onto
nanoporous carbon is important in determining the
viability of the material for potential
applications these applications include
biomedical applications, hydrogen storage as well
as tribological applications. One method of
forming nanostructured carbon is through the
selective leaching of metals from a carbide
ceramic resulting in a material called carbide
derived carbon (CDC).

CDC
coupons used in the experiments were synthesized
by placing a silicon carbide coupon in either a
1000o C or a 900o C chlorine-containing
environment. Argon and hydrogen post-treatments
were also done on certain CDC samples. After the
various treatments, the samples were weighed and
placed in controlled relative humidity chambers.
The weight gain, due to the condensation of water
vapor onto the CDC, while the samples were in the
different chambers was recorded.
The results show that regardless of the
temperature at which they were chlorinated CDC
coupons are hygroscopic, absorbing up to 35 of
their weight in water. The water absorption
curves follow a typed I IUPAC adsorption curve,
suggesting that CDC is microporous. All
post-treated CDC coupons show a type IV
adsorption isotherm, which suggests that
post-treatments cause the formation of large
pores within CDC. Finally although isotherms
associated with differently post-treated CDC were
similar, the friction coefficients were not, 0.35
and 0.16 for an argon post-treated sample and a
hydrogen post-treated sample respectively. Thus
hydrogen post-treatment chemically and physically
alters CDC whereas an argon post-treatment only
physically alters CDC.
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Sample abstract 2
We present a methodology for measuring the risks
posed by drinking drivers that relies solely on
readily available data on fatal crashes.


The key to our identification strategy is a
hidden richness inherent in two- car crashes.
Drivers with alcohol in
their blood are seven times more likely to cause
a fatal crash legally drunk drivers pose a risk
13 times greater than sober drivers. The
externality per mile driven by a drunk driver is
at least 30 cents. At current enforcement rates
the punishment per arrest for drunk driving that
internalizes this externality would be equivalent
to a fine of 8,000.
"How Dangerous Are Drinking Drivers?" Journal of
Political Economy, 2001, 109(6), pp. 1198-237
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Its all about English

• Avoid using the passive tense (a cheat is to use
  the gerund form of the action if possible, ie
  running, learning, teaching, etc)
• Avoid wordiness
• Use simple language there is no reason to make
  the structure complicated
• Vary your transitions
• Your objective to make the information clear not
  show off how smart you are

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Thank you!!!
Questions????