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Table of Contents | Reference Texts | Workbook: Lessons & Exercises

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Guidelines for Organizing Abstracts

  • An abstract summarizes the most important points in an article/report and must include the purpose, scope, methods, and conclusions and/or recommendations of the article/report.  In essence, it is a “stand alone” document and should never be used as an introductory device that leaves the reader hanging.
  • An abstract contains the distilled essence of the original article/report in a smaller package.  Therefore, only key points are included and examples, illustrations, and explanations are excluded.
  • An abstract consists of a single paragraph and varies in length from 100 to 200 words to up to 10% of the length of the main report.
  • An abstract does not have headings or subheadings.
  • An abstract uses horizontal lists, not vertical lists.

 

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