Transcript How to Write An Abstract

How to Write An Abstract
Liping Liu
Introduction
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An abstract is a short summary of your
completed research. If done well, it makes
the reader want to learn more about your
research.
Despite the fact that an abstract is quite brief,
it must do almost as much work as the multipage paper that follows it.
Use the following as a checklist for your next
abstract .
Motivation
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Why do we care about the problem and the
results?
This section should include the importance of
your work, the difficulty of the area, and the
impact it might have if successful.
Problem statement
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What problem are you trying to solve?
What is the scope of your work (a
generalized approach, or for a specific
situation)?
Approach
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How did you go about solving or making
progress on the problem?
Did you use simulation, analytic models,
prototype construction, or analysis of field
data for an actual product?
What was the extent of your work.
What important variables did you control,
ignore, or measure?
Results
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What's the answer?
What did you learn/invent/create?
Conclusion
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What are the implications of your answer?
Are your results general, potentially
generalizable, or specific to a particular
case?
Other Considerations
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An abstract must be a fully self-contained,
capsule description of the paper.
Meet the word count limitation. An abstract
word limit of 150 to 200 words is common.
Avoid using bibliographic references in the
Abstract unless they are absolutely essential
to understanding the scholarship or results of
the study.
Further Reading
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Google search online
http://www.sccur.uci.edu/sampleabstracts.html
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.
html
http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/Abstract.html
Michaelson, Herbert, How to Write & Publish
Engineering Papers and Reports, Oryx Press, 1990.
Chapter 6 discusses abstracts.
Cremmins, Edward, The Art of Abstracting 2nd
Edition, Info Resources Press, April 1996. This is an
entire book about abstracting, written primarily for
professional abstractors.
Sample Abstract
Persistent Global Activation of the Aplysia Serotonergic System After Sensitizing Stimuli
Kristine Kolkman
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Carew
The marine mollusk Aplysia responds to noxious stimulation with a stereotyped arousal
reaction that includes escape locomotion, increased heart rate and sensitization of defensive
reflexes. Although previous studies have shown that serotonin (5-HT) is important for most of
these behavioral responses, it is still unclear how the 5-HT system is activated in response to
noxious stimuli. To address this question, I used a specific staining of the 5-HT neurons in the
living central nervous system (CNS) that allowed me to (1) systematically record their electrical
activity following a noxious stimulus, and (2) trace their projections using the neuronal tracer
Neurobiotin. I found that in response to tail-nerve shock, a procedure known to mimic a noxious
tail stimulus, the vast majority of 5-HT neurons increased their firing rate for several minutes
and became more excitable. 5-HT neurons were found to project toward various peripheral
targets such as the gill, heart, body wall, tail, siphon, head, and tentacles as well as to other
ganglia in the CNS. This study shows that the Aplysia 5-HT system is globally and persistently
activated after a noxious stimulus. Such an activation might serve to synchronize the different
aspects of the arousal reaction in Aplysia.