The Scientific Abstract and Proposal Summaries

Types of Summaries

Title Table of Contents Outline Executive summary Scientific abstract Proposal summary

Properties of the Scientific Abstract

It’s short Does not use first person Usually written as a single paragraph

(unless it is an “extended abstract”) Written for the same audience as the

article (same level of technical language) Summarizes the major points of the

methods, results, conclusions Does not include bibliographic citations

When are abstracts used?

Journal articles Conference proceedings Book chapters of edited,

compendium volumes

How is an abstract written?

First identify the major points from the article Next, determine what information is crucial

to establish those points Write down the conclusions Rewrite all of the above in narrative form in

the following order:1. Introductory statement2. Research methodology 3. Results or other main points4. Concluding statement that explains the meaning

of the results

The Extended Abstract

It’s like a mini-paper Often used for conference

proceedings Exceeds one page Has headings Can contain figures, bibliographic

citations, acknowledgements

Active vs. Passive Voice?

Active: “We measured surface roughness using airborne laser altimetry”

Passive “Surface roughness was measured using airborne laser altimetry”

Rule of thumb: Use active voice unless the passive form

will save on the number of words

Index Terms

These are the keywords that typically follow the abstract

They are used by library and journal search engines (not Google-style)

The terms should exactly match terms that are used in the abstract

They should be specific Typically you’ll want to choose 4-10

terms

The Proposal Summary

A one-page summary Use non-technical language that can be

understood by a well-educated non-scientist

The summary should follow the same organizational format as the proposal itself and can be used as a roadmap for what follows

Use separate sections with headings Avoid using first person