Aims and introduction
Aim
The aim of this activity is to develop your ability to write concise and comprehensive abstracts of your research findings.
Before you attempt this activity
Please read Chapter 10 "Writing an abstract" in the associated textbook: Communication Skills for the Biosciences.
Introduction
Well-written research abstracts:
- concisely convey the essential content of your work and
- entice the reader to find out more about your research and
- conform strictly to the word limit stipulated.
This means that writing a good abstract is a demanding activity and a skill which improves with practice. One method by which you can improve your ability to write abstracts is to critically evaluate, using the checklist provided, a selection of abstracts taken from published papers. If you do this, you will notice that even published abstracts are of variable quality, ranging from well-written abstracts to those that are poor. Some will motivate you to read the full article and others will not. You should of course be writing in a way which presents your findings accurately and at the same time encourages the reader to find out more about your work.
To assist you in writing strong abstracts this exercise consists of two research abstracts for you to review. Read through each abstract and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses using the checklist provided to guide you.
