Abstracts
A-State Online Writing Center
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a condensed, self-contained overview of an essay or report that is typically about
200 to 250 words depending on the field of study and abstract type. These short introductions do
not provide insight or analysis; they summarize the content, research methods, and conclusion
reached in an essay or report from a third-person point of view. Additionally, they do not address
outside information or present new information.

What is its purpose?
Because abstracts provide a brief overview, readers can then judge whether they wish to continue
reading the larger body of work and/or if the work helps their research. Abstracts can precede
introductions to journal articles, theses, grant applications, book proposals, and more. They arealso used for indexing purposes, which is why keywords at the bottom of the abstract areimportant. Moreover, these specific associated keywords allow researchers to find that body ofwork within online databases more easily

Types of abstracts
There are four types of abstracts: informative, descriptive, critical, and highlight abstracts.
However, students most often use informative abstracts. With that being said, always follow theguidelines dictated by your instructor or institution.
Informative Abstracts
Informative abstracts detail the background, major points, research methods, significant findings,
the conclusion reached, and any recommendations so that readers understand the main elementsof the paper before delving further. These paragraphs are typically 250 words in length, although
this can vary based on discipline.
Outline of an Informative Abstract
Although different disciplines may require distinct information, informative abstracts follow thisoutline:
1. Background & purpose of paper or report (i.e., Why was this topic researched? Why should
people care?)
2. Main argument or thesis points
3. Research methods or approaches used

4. Significant findings and/or results found and how they may contribute to the overall discussion
surrounding the topic at hand

Descriptive Abstracts
Descriptive abstracts provide an overview of the content, detailing major points and researchmethods involved. However, contrary to informative abstracts, they do not provide significant
findings, conclusions, or recommendations. Additionally, they are about 100 words in length.
For these reasons, they are often less helpful in determining the relevance of a work when
conducting research as opposed to informative abstracts.
Critical Abstracts
Unlike the previous two, critical abstracts evaluate and/or offer analysis on the paper’s findings
and provide an overview of the paper. These abstracts are typically longer, extending to about
400 to 500 words because of analytical commentary. Further, they can refer to outside
information to compare and contrast, which informative and descriptive abstracts do not include.
Highlight Abstracts
Highlight abstracts are infrequently used in academia because they are meant to grasp thereader’s attention to read the work more so than act as stand-alone overviews. Readers may notreceive a full picture of the purpose and major findings of a text.

Informative Abstract Sample
Kamat, Prashant V. (2007, February, 1). Meeting the clean energy demand: Nanostructurearchitectures for solar energy conversion. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 111(7), 2834-2860.
https://doi.org/10.1021/jp066952u
The increasing energy demand in the near future will force us to seek environmentally clean
alternative energy resources. The emergence of nanomaterials as the new building blocks toconstruct light energy harvesting assemblies has opened up new ways to utilize renewable energy
sources. This article discusses three major ways to utilize nanostructures for the design of solar
energy conversion devices: (i) Mimicking photosynthesis with donor−acceptor molecularassemblies or clusters, (ii) semiconductor assisted photocatalysis to produce fuels such ashydrogen, and (iii) nanostructure semiconductor based solar cells. This account further highlights
some of the recent developments in these areas and points out the factors that limit the efficiency
optimization. Strategies to employ ordered assemblies of semiconductor and metal nanoparticles,
inorganic-organic hybrid assemblies, and carbon nanostructures in the energy conversion
schemes are also discussed. Directing the future research efforts toward utilization of suchtailored nanostructures or ordered hybrid assemblies will play an important task in achieving thedesired goal of cheap and efficient fuel production (e.g., solar hydrogen production) or electricity(photochemical solar cells).

Tips●Include keywords and technical terms from the document; this makes the abstract/paper
searchable

●
●
●
●
●
●
●

Do not be vague or general; discuss specifics
Be concise
Use active voice over passive
Do not use first-person “I” statements
Do not refer to any outside body of work
Do not present new information that is not found within the paper
Do not use acronyms or jargon

APA Formatting Guidelines
https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/abstract-keywords-guide.pdf

Works Consulted
●
●
●
●
●

https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/writing-an-abstract
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/abstracts/
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/abstract/
https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/page.cfm?pageid=1252&guideid=59
https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/abstract

More Resources & Examples
●
●
●
●
●

https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/https://urca.msu.edu/abstract-samples
https://style.mla.org/how-to-write-an-abstract/
https://www.scientific-editing.info/writing-an-abstract-in-mla-format/
https://cmeforum.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/how-to-write-informative-abstracts/