Hey guys, welcome to Grad Coach TV where we demystify and simplify the oftentimes confusing
world of academic research. My name is David, and today I am chatting with one of our trusted
dissertation coaches, Peter about five of the common mistakes students make when working on
their abstracts. This discussion is based on one of the many, many articles over at the Grad Coach
blog. So, if you are looking for more information about the abstract or any of your other chapters
consider taking a look at the Grad Coach blog. You can find it at gradcoach.com/blog. Also if
you are looking for a helping hand with your thesis dissertation or research project consider
taking a look at our one-on-one private coaching service, where we will help you step by step
through your research journey providing support and holding your hand. For more information
and to book a free consultation with one of our friendly coaches head over to gradcoach.com.
So, Peter, welcome to the Coach Cast it is great to have you here with us today. Great to
be here. I am excited. So, today we are talking about the abstract mistakes and the first one
is really about not understanding what an abstract is. So, when there is that
misunderstanding we often enough see a lot more problems coming up. So, Peter,
what is an abstract and how do we make it? I think the best way to think about an abstract is
to consider how abstracts are used in the research process. You have probably seen a lot of abstracts
or read a lot of abstracts in the process of doing research. They are meant to be very concise
summaries of the research that has been carried out and it includes a little bit of everything
and about the research so that anyone who is considering reading it has a good idea of what
they are going to find. Besides the title, it is going to be the second thing that they see in
the library database. I like to compare it to an elevator pitch. You want to keep it short, sweet
and not waste the reader's time but represent everything that you are aiming in your research
to get across. It is important to recognize that an abstract is standalone it needs to function
separate from the research in that you do not want to be copying and pasting from your work. The idea
is that you are creating a narrative about the research that represents everything that you did.
That is a great explanation there, Peter, and as you said it is that first bit of a research piece
that we read and we are going to be using that to make a decision on whether we are going to read
that article or not. And it is also there to give your marker an idea of what you are going to be
exploring in your research. One of the common things that come up is there is a bit of a
misconception about what an abstract is and we will talk about the contents of an abstract later
on but it really is not just the summary of your intro or the summary of your discussion. As you
said, Peter, it is a little bit of everything. It is your intro, your literature review, your
methodology, what you found and what it means. And so it is really important to keep all of those
together. It is also a standalone document as you mentioned so we do not want to be presenting
any new information at all. It really needs to be what it is presenting is what is in your paper.
Absolutely, I think that is fantastic, those are such common misconceptions. The last thing that I
want to talk about is comparing the difference or talking about the difference between an executive
summary and an abstract. Largely the only difference is length. In an executive summary,
you have a little bit more space to work with. It can be more along the lines of a thousand words
rather than something much shorter and abstract is considered to be a half a page to a page
work, very concise. Some disciplines prefer executive summaries some disciplines prefer
abstracts. It is best to check with your program and I am certain that they generally have a
recommendation on what is expected as part of the project.
So, mistake number two is not covering the key parts of your study. So, Peter, what all do we
need to put into our abstract? You know generally, I think the best way to think about it is an
abstract tells us what you did, why you did it and how you did it. Those are the three sorts of
questions that you should have in the back of your mind as you are preparing your abstract. The other
way and perhaps an easier rule of thumb is that two to three sentences from each of your chapters
need to be included. What you are looking to do is tell us who and where you did your research.
It is basically the same idea as chapter one, you are contextualizing for us the research
that you undertook. The why question is about the significance of the research. How does it
connect to what research came before and what differences that you use to justify your research?
And again you know in a few sentences. It is really important to keep this concise so you
are not adding new information here, you are just telling us very briefly what the
significance of the research was. Then you would want to tell us a little bit about the design.
I see this often where people will try to replicate the whole of their design and that is
not useful either. We just need to know what your methodology was and a few key points. Something
about the sample would be very helpful because that has a lot to do with the implications of
your research. Who was it that you worked with and how many? These are sorts of the questions
that you want to include in your abstract. And then the big findings and the implications,
we are not going to try to replicate all of your findings but what were the key ones
that perhaps were unexpected or that may have been complementing existing research.
Think about it in that way so that you are telling us as an audience is this something that we
can read and expect to uncover new information or something that we should pay attention to?
Maybe your literature reviews more closely because your findings complement what is
already in your literature review. These are the ways to think about your abstract. It is the what,
the why and the how. And try to be as concise as possible. I think that is really a great coverage
of it and I am so glad that you use the same rule of thumb that I do of you know two to three
sentences per chapter. Really as you said, Peter, here it is totally about what you did, why you
did it, how you did it and let us be honest, the more most important part most people reading your
research are interested in is what you found. So, definitely really helpful there, Peter.
So, the third mistake we come across and it is one that kind of gets under my skin a little bit
is when in the abstract students or clients are actually just
copy-pasting from their chapters rather than paraphrasing and creating their abstract.
So, Peter, why is this an issue in writing an abstract? Well, I find that what happens is that
since an abstract is meant to be written last, it is one of the last things that you do because you
want to be able to summarize all of your work, that there is this tendency to copy and paste.
And they take directly from what they have already written in the dissertation
as if that is going to be sufficient for concisely representing what they did.
And so, this is the wrong way to think about the abstract. It should not be a copy and paste job it
needs to paraphrase, it needs to represent in very clear language, very detailed rich language what
the main components are of your research as we have already discussed. It is really important
to be able to read an abstract that has a smooth flow, a clear narrative about
what it was you set out to do and how well you actually accomplished what you set out to do. And
then what are the results? Sometimes those results may not be what you expected or they may not be
earth-shattering in your opinion, but the abstract really represents the first picture that someone
who is arriving at your work, is the first picture that they are going to get of this work and it can
really make a big difference in whether or not they are going to go ahead and read the rest
of your document. I think that is definitely a key point. You really want that really strong
narrative because as you said earlier, Peter, when you see a good abstract it makes an impact.
It sort of helps you to sit up and say oh thank goodness I finally found that study I have been
looking for. So, really having a clear narrative from the first two sentences all the way through
to the end is really useful. Making sure that narrative flow is clear and probably most
importantly is using detail-rich concise language. We want to make sure we are maximizing the amount
of information we can present while minimizing word count but still telling a good story.
Which is a pretty tough line to walk but that is I guess why we do it right at the end as well.
So, mistake four is related to various formatting and language issues and this is a bit of a
catch-all for quite a range of small mistakes that come up. So, Peter, what are some of these issues
that we need to keep an eye out for when writing an abstract? There are a number of common rules
to follow. One, no new content. You do not want to surprise your reader or provide your reader with
some sort of expectations of something that is going to be included and then you do not
touch on it at all in your research. Another rule is you do not need to include citations.
You do not want to reference anything within the abstract. You may use names, let us say
if you have used a named theory or if your research is somehow in response to a particular
researcher or set of researchers, you may name those sorts of people
but you will not be doing any sort of referencing of their work. Another rule is excessive jargon.
We do not want to be using lots of jargon in an abstract. You want it to be understandable to a
general audience, you want it to be expressing in concise ways what your research is about.
But by being too much or using too much jargon you can lose your reader. You may, the reader may not
be able to understand exactly what you are talking about. Related to that you do not want to be using
abbreviations. You probably use quite a few abbreviations in your dissertation or a thesis,
but in the abstract, those need to be spelt out. You just do not have the space to provide a lot
of information here in your abstract and expecting someone from, who is just coming to your research
to understand what an abbreviation is, is expecting too much let us say. The other rule
of thumb is you do not want to include figures, tables or bullet points. You want to be concise
but not in the way that perhaps a list would provide that sort of conciseness. So,
those are the sorts of rules that apply to an abstract, becomes a very nice flowing narrative.
I think that is a really great coverage there, most of those issues. I think the one thing that
I would add is it is really important to be aware of the length of your abstract and this
can vary quite a lot. So, some journals have very short abstracts, a hundred, a hundred and eighty
words, whereas in a dissertation or PhD you might have five hundred words or more for an abstract.
So, it is really important to keep in mind you are telling a narrative story but you have got to
do that within a word count. And the best way to find that out is to go to your university to get
those specifics. Similarly as well different universities have different, many rules or
suggestions. So, I always suggest go take a look at your university guidelines, the information
that you have there, they will tell you about the specific formatting steps that they want you to
follow. So, definitely, it is a worthwhile to go check out those documents as well.
So, our fifth and final mistake is not including keywords at the end of your abstract. This is a
little bit of an uncertain one because some universities do not require it, but Peter,
maybe you can let us know why including keywords is important and what we can do to identify them?
I think the best way to talk about keywords or key phrases is to understand the value that they
enter into the research process. Keywords are the ways in which other researchers find your work.
You went through this process in finding the research that you
used in your literature review and now determining some keywords for your own project will help
other researchers find your work. It is really important to understand that there is a difference
or that there can be a difference. When we say keywords or key phrases there might be multiple
words that represent a concept, so you do not want to just limit yourself as far as like one-word
keywords. They can represent multiple or a larger concept and have multiple terms. Of course,
you would not, I do not want to take this to the extreme where someone is using a whole sentence as
a keyword or a key concept that is not the case. Another good aspect to recognize is that there are
five to seven words would probably be sufficient. If you start to have too many keywords
then it seems as if you are gaming the system or that your work is going to lack credibility.
Really, we call them keywords because these are the most important concepts or ideas that you are
going to be sharing with us in your research and overdoing it can be a problem. The most important
aspect of deciding on which keywords to use is that there is a strong alignment with the key
elements of your research project. If you have been using Grad Coach videos I am sure you have
heard the word alignment often. We talk about it quite a lot because it is important to connect
all of the aspects of your research together and recognize that there is this relationship.
And keywords are no different, keywords are meant to represent the key elements of your research.
I think that is a great point that we really want that alignment to be strong in our abstract
so that we are moving from the keywords or key phrases you are using in your abstract,
are seen in your study itself and are used as your keywords. I think another thing to think about is
how do you decide on what your keywords or key phrases are. And broadly speaking the best way
to go about this is to look at what is being used by other research that is very similar to yours,
that would be the first way, and then secondly what are the key concepts
or key ideas that are integral to your project. So, you really want to make sure that you are
catching those key topics and, as Peter said, you have only got five to seven to choose from so
it is important to be a little careful on that. Lastly, I will say as well
for any of these keywords or key phrases again, do take a look at what your university requirements
are because some universities do not want them, others want three so really just err on the side
of what is been published before through your university by looking at other dissertations.
All right so that is a wrap on today's episode of Grad Coach TV. Remember if you are looking
for more information about the abstract or any of your other chapters head over to our blog at
gradcoach.com/blog. There you can also get access to our free dissertation and thesis writing
mini-course which gives you all the information you need to get started on your research journey.
Also if you are looking for a helping hand in your dissertation or thesis be sure to check
out our one-on-one private coaching service where you can work with one of our friendly
coaches like Peter. For all the information and to book a free initial consultation
head over to gradcoach.com. Well, that is all we have time for today. Until next time, good luck.