How to Write the Abstract of a Dissertation?

Structuring an Abstract:

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the abstract is a collection of sentences that reflect the central idea of the whole dissertation. And according to the Collin's Dictionary (English), the abstract is an important part of academic writing that mirrors all main points of the dissertation within a few paragraphs. The purpose of the dissertation abstract is to give the reader an eagle’s view of the problem statement and searching techniques so that the other reader can decide immediately whether to read or leave. Abstract facilitates a reader to quickly get the essence of the whole research in just a few minutes.

The abstract should be brief (100 to 300 words in length) and may be of any type; Descriptive, Informative, or Structured. The structure of an abstract depends greatly upon the type of abstract the writer wants to write.

1. Informative Abstracts:

The coursework writing service firm says that informative abstracts are those in which the writer explicates every important point of the dissertation like; Which method was used? What were the aims of the research, and what was concluded from the study? Mostly, science dissertations have abstracts.

2. Descriptive Abstracts:

Descriptive abstracts are abstracts that give complete information of the dissertation but no statistical information is used to strengthen this part. Such dissertations are mostly seen in humanities and social science’s dissertations.

3. Structured Abstracts:

Structured abstracts are abstracts that are specifically structured into different subheadings; Introduction, Aims, and Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. In short, a proper heading for each section is used in this type of abstract. These abstracts are mostly seen in clinical and medical trial reports.

The definitions and conceptual understanding of different types of abstract explicate that the general structure of abstract should contain the following components. A writer can produce an effective abstract by getting complete knowledge about the components of the abstract. Essential components of an abstract are as follows.

A. Introduction

The introductory part of an abstract must be concise and up to date. The main component of the introduction of an abstract is the rationale of the study. The first few starting lines of the abstract must answer the following questions.

1. What is the main issue discussed in the whole dissertation?
2. What is the purpose of conducting that research?
3. Brief background of the problem under study.
4. Why it is important to answer the problem under study?
5. What is the problem statement of this dissertation?
6. How much population it is affecting?

The sentence structure chosen to encounter all these key elements must be clear and concise. The introductory lines must be short and different from the title of the dissertations. The uniqueness of the introductory lines makes the article and dissertation impressive for the readers or tutors.

B. Methodology

After a brief introduction of the problem, problem statement, background, and rationale of the research, the writer must include the approaches and the techniques he followed while investigating the problem. The methodology section of the abstract mainly targets the following questions.

1) How was the research performed?
2) Which analysis, variables, and models were used to design the research?

After completing the introduction and methodology sections of the abstract, almost half of the task has been compelled. These two sections will provide readers a brief review about the purpose of the research and the methods used to achieve the desired aims. Mostly, the reader gets an idea about the usefulness of the article from these two parts.

C. Findings and Discussion

The findings and discussion section of the abstract is usually useful for the researchers that want to analyse the validity of their findings. This section of the abstract aims to provide information about the success of the research. The PhD dissertation writing service firm addressing of the following questions in a few lines;

1. What kind of information did you extract from this experiment or research?
2. Are your findings valid and considerable for other research projects?
3. What was the statistical difference between the variables?

It should be noted that while writing findings and discussions, repetition of words and sentence fragmentations must be avoided.

D. Conclusion

This section of the abstract allows the writer to discuss what is the main issue and how it should be monitored to overcome the adverse effects of the problem. The ideal conclusion must address the following points.

1. What are the possible consequences of the study?
2. How our findings can be generalized so that a large population can get benefit from it?

It should be noted that the conclusion section of the abstract is usually written in present form. This section of the abstract must not include any idea that has not been used in the dissertation. Important ideas to make the conclusion concise include.

1. Avoid overstatements.
2. Avoid excessive use of keywords.
3. Outlines words to be used while drafting this section.
4. Try to be specific.

E. Recommendation and Future Perspectives.

Most of the time, there are no definite heads for the Recommendation and Future perspectives part of the abstract. These two parts are not essential for the completion of an abstract but the addition of these parts in one-two lines at the end of the abstract section may enhance the impact of the research on the reader. Recommendation highlights points like how can you further enhance the generalization of your research, while the future perspectives aim to target the upcoming needs of your research along with its future applications.

The abstract section of the dissertation is mostly written after the competition of the whole research. Writing abstract is not a rocket science but the only thing that bothers most of the writers while abstract writing is, "How can we summarize five-part into just 300 words". Most people said that, “it is not less than to build a bridge over the sea”. The main point of writing the abstract that every writer must follow is to ‘remain concise as well as informative while drafting an abstract’. A useful tip that may help writers achieve these aims is writing the abstract after the completion of the dissertation. This will help in summing up the credibility or readability of the research in general.