Characteristics of a Good Abstract

Research is a systematic and well organized activity and has specific rules and styles; similarly an abstract has some major features.

There are some basic rules for developing good abstracts.

 Word Limit

Word limit is essential for brief and systematic approach of writing. It saves a lot of time and labor of readers, writers, publishing organizers and conferences executives.

 Correct Structure and Sequence

An abstract must be well designed and disciplined. There should be suitable proportions and organization of different parts of abstract. Key information should be given preference to important information. Mostly, an abstract has such information essentially, statement of problem, objectives, procedures, findings and recommendations.

 No Extra Information

An abstract is a brief description of a longer paper. It covers only information about the related paper. It does not provide any more and additional information to the readers which   are not include in   the real   document.

 No Definitions

An abstract has not any definitions. Although definitions are necessary part of the introduction of a paper but introduction is not a part of the abstract.

 Well – Written

Information is linked mutually with appropriate way. An abstract must be well structured as well as it must be written with accurate grammar and spellings. It must be understandable easily for readers.

 No References

An abstract can not afford burden of references because of word limitation. An abstract presents summary of paper with out reference and bibliographic citation.

 Key Words

Sometimes, a list of key words or glossary is written for research magazines and conferences. Key words are prepared to narrate the list of topics for researchers, interest. These key words and list are useful for those people who work on research projects in any field or area of research.

 Author Details

Sometimes, through abstracts, we can get introduction and biographic details of authors. This information also provides history and background of different fields of research. Abstracts are helpful for selecting research area as well as research topics. A researcher can get information of research methodology, objectives and findings of previous research activities from an abstract.

 Information Source

Occasionally, an abstract is source of latest knowledge and information about conceptual research papers. Some times a researcher finds such information that is helpful for him later on, he can keep record of these information for future needs. Some times, an abstract is written for a conference session. Conference organizers think that it is more common so its preview must be done before publishing.

Preview of an Article

An abstract gives a suitable and fine ideology about what is in the article and can give an appropriate structure for getting comprehension of the whole article.