Abstract

The next part of a scholarly article that you will see is the abstract. The abstract is a summary of the article. This summary is short (~150 to 250 words), and is a condensed and concentrated version of the full paper. It should contain the thesis, methods, major results, and conclusion enough to represent the paper if read as a standalone document.

Machine Readable PDF of Abstract Parts Infographic by Megan Carlton

Since scholarly writing can sometimes be long, detailed, and difficult to read (if you are not a subject expert), the abstract is a crucial tool when doing research. Sometimes it is the only part of the paper that you will see when searching through a database.

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