ABSTRACTSABSTRACTSTEACHING AND LEARNING RESEARCH GRANT TEACHING AND LEARNING RESEARCH GRANT

HOLDERHOLDERWRITING FOR PUBLICATION WORKSHOPWRITING FOR PUBLICATION WORKSHOP

VIVIENNE BOZALEKVIVIENNE BOZALEK11

Introduction

• What is an abstract?• Why is it important?• How would I write an abstract?

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What is an abstract?

• Different for different journals - array of conventions/genres (Kamler & Thomson, 2006; Murray, 2009)

A quantitative example which places importance on the following:

• Abstracts begin with what is known, what isn't known and what needs to be research, followed by a justification of the work researched

• Theme sentence to grab readers' attention, main aim, importance of study, methodology, main findings, statement of conclusions, implications

• Short summary of article max 200-250 words

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The seven elements Element 1 Brief theme sentence; Element 2 Main purpose or aim of studyElement 3 Academic or practical importance of studyElement 4: Methodology of the studyElement 5: Main findings of the studyElement 6: Conclusions or contribution to literatureElement 7: Implications of study(reference: Kotze web.up.ac.za )

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Why is an abstract important?

• Window display or advert for your own work• Kamler & Thomson (2006) call abstracts 'tiny texts' - need to learn to write

persuasively about research small amount of words but large in what they can accomplish

• Often only your abstract will be read by other researchers• Authors scan them• Highlights issues of authority and voice - 'compress rhetorical act of arguing into a

small textual space using a small number of words' (Kamler & Thomson, 2006:85)• Needs to be compelling bid for inclusion in scholarly events - can be seen as a

legitimate knower (Kamler & Thomson, 2006:85)• So what? Question - given that there is so much out there why would people be

interested in reading your text and not someone elses? (Kamler& Thomson, 2006:90)

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Story of your article (Thanks to Lucia Thesen for this slide)

• Once upon a time researchers believed that …

• But then I thought that maybe …• So what I did was …• And I’ve discovered that …• Which changed the way that we …

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Draft 1 - Elizabeth gets abstracted (Kamler & Thomson, 2006:86-87)

In this article I argue that careful analysis of very young children’s use of ICT and other technologies suggests that both the dominance of print in emergent literacy education, and school expectations of the literacy achievements of children prior to formal schooling, may require review.

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Draft 2

In this paper I explore how three young boys in the period of pre-school transition use ICT and other technologies. I suggest that neither the dominance of print in emergent literacy education, not school expectations of the literacy achievements of children prior to formal schooling, attend to the versatility with literacy technologies demonstrated by these very young children and that this failure could inhibit their continuing literacy development both in ICTs and print.

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Draft 3

Recent investigations of early and emergent literacy seriously underestimate young children’s capacity to use ICTs and other technologies in becoming literate, and print continues to be privileged as the dominant literacy for young children. In this article I examine how three young boys used ICT in the period of pre-school transition and highlight the complexity of their multimodal reading and writing practices. I argue that unless schools attend to young children’s versatility with literacy technologies, this failure could inhibit their continuing literacy development both in ICTs and print.

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How to write an abstract• What is the research problem being addressed?• How do I locate the significance of my own

work?• What conversation am I in? Where am I

standing in relation to this research problem?• What do I offer as an alternative to existing

research?• What is my argument? (Kamler & Thomson,

2006:88)

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Four moves thanks to Lucia Thesen for this useful slide

• Locate: specific paper in relation to larger projects/debates/issues, naming the angle

• Focus: identify the particular questions/issues/kinds of problems that the paper will explore/examine

• Report: summarise major findings pertinent to the argument, outlining the research, sample, method of analysis

• Argue: open out the argument, analysis, possibilities, and indicate a point of view, returning to the angle

Kamler and Thomson (2004), (2006)

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References• Feldmann, D.C. (2004). The devil is in the details;

Converting good research into publishable articles. Journal of Management, 30(1):1-6.

• Kotze, T. n.d. Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article. Department of Marketing and Communication Managemetn. University of Pretoria. web.up.ac.za (accessed 20 November, 2011)

• Murray, R. (2009). Writing for Academic Journals. Second edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

• Kamler, B. & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping doctoral students write: Pedagogies for supervision. London & New York: Routledge.

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Now you can try to re/construct your own abstract

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Examples of abstracts

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