Treball de Recerca 2021-2022 – The abstract

Definition
An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-
depth analysis of a particular subject and is often used to help the reader quickly find out the paper’s
purpose.
An academic abstract typically outlines four elements relevant to the completed work:
 The research focus (i.e. statement of the problem(s)/research issue(s) addressed);
 The research methods used (experimental research, case studies, questionnaires, etc.);
 The results/findings of the research; and
 The main conclusions and recommendations
It can be enlarged by including:
 The background of the research focus
 The structure of the work presented
By reading the abstract and having a glance to the index, the reader must be able to decide whether
she/he is interested in reading the work.

Types of abstracts

TdR 2021-2022 must include around 250 words abstract in length, so it must be a descriptive
abstract.

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Where to place an abstract
Abstracts are independent texts placed between the title of the article and the first section. If the work
has in index, abstract must be an independent page and placed between the title page an index
page.

Abstract writing DOs and DON’Ts

DOs
1. Always include a few introductory sentences to give the context of the research and a very
brief summary of previous research in the field.
2. Include a statement on why your work is innovative/original, emphasising the literature gap
it is filling.
3. Clearly state the research aim/questions.
4. Include a few lines on methodology and the research design that was utilised.
5. Present the most prominent finding(s) even if your research is at a preliminary stage. If you
have no results, you can talk about what you expect your results to show.
6. Close with a sentence showing the potential implication of your work.

The points made in the DOs can also be used as a step-by-step guide to follow when writing an
academic abstract, since if you follow the steps, you will have a first working draft in a few
minutes.

DON’Ts
1. Make grammar mistakes and typos. Make sure you proof-read your abstract and send it to a
couple of friends or colleagues before submitting it.
2. Omit important information. Try not to omit any of the parts discussed in the DOs list. Each
one of them is equally important and necessary.
3. Be ambiguous when stating the focus of the abstract. Make sure that you explain in a clear
and concise way what the aim of your work is.
4. Use undefined key terms. Don’t use jargon and unnecessary abbreviations in the abstract.
Make sure you know your audience and explain appropriately all the academic terms you are
using.
5. Go over the word limit. It is called word limit for a reason; long abstracts discourage reviewers
from reading them.
6. Your abstract should be an overview of your paper, not a proposal for what you intended to
study or accomplish. Avoid beginning your sentences with phrases like This essay will exam-
ine... or In this research paper I will attempt to prove...

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Some examples
Example 1: Humanities abstract

Kenneth Tait Andrews, “Freedom is a constant struggle”: The dynamics and consequences of the
Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1984. Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook,
1997
This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the
Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By
examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social
structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so. The time period studied includes
the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of public schools
and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I
use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case
studies. Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports. This
dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies,
courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these
groups acted in response to the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi
movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and
injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an
enduring legacy in Mississippi.
(198 words)

Breaking down the abstract

What the dissertation does:

This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil
Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically
important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints
movements face when they try to do so.
How the dissertation does it (methodology):

The time period studied in this dissertation includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political
power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of
federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data
and (2) three case studies.
What materials are used:

Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports.

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 Conclusion:

This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, court s,
political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in
response to movement demands and the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi
movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices.
By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in
Mississippi.

Example 2: Science Abstract

Luis Lehner, Gravitational radiation from black hole spacetimes. Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1998.

The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction
of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms
that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search for and analysis of detected signals.
The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black
holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is
included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced
by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the
evolution algorithm. This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear
spacetimes. In particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is
equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further
use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes.
The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black
hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.

Breaking down the abstract

Why do this study:

The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new
detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that would be
produced in particular systems will expedite the search and analysis of the detected signals.
What the study does:

The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D
asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is included in the evolved
region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact source. A module
to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the evolution algorithm.
Results

This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we
have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole

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 mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region
close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity
and accurately evolves generic black hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.

Some fun or what you should avoid

Useful English

Explaining the significance of the current study

This work will generate fresh insight into …

The study offers some important insights into ...
The importance and originality of this study is to explore …
The present research explores, for the first time, the effects of …
This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring ...
This project provided an important opportunity to advance the understanding of ...
The experimental work presented here provides one of the first investigations into how …
X is widespread in …
X is fundamental to …
X is an important aspect of …
The importance of X is indisputable.

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Identifying a controversy within the field of study

A much debated question is whether …

One major issue in early X research concerned ...
To date there has been little agreement on what ...
The issue has grown in importance in light of recent ...
There has been disagreement on the criteria for defining X.
Questions have been raised about the use of animal subjects in ...
Debate continues about the best strategies for the management of ...
This concept has recently been challenged by X studies demonstrating ...
More recently, literature has emerged that offers contradictory findings about ...
One of the most significant current discussions in legal and moral philosophy is ...
The relationship between X and Y has attracted conflicting interpretations from …
Several divergent accounts of X have been proposed, creating numerous controversies.
The causes of X have been the subject of intense debate within the scientific community.

Highlighting inadequacies or weaknesses of previous studies (also refer to Being Critical)

Previous studies of X have not dealt with ...
Researchers have not treated X in much detail.
Such expositions are unsatisfactory because they ...
Such approaches, however, have failed to address …
Most studies in the field of X have only focused on ...
The research to date has tended to focus on X rather than Y.
Previously published studies on the effect of X are not consistent.
The existing accounts fail to resolve the contradiction between X and Y.
It is still not known whether …
The nature of X remains unclear.
Currently, there are no data on …
What is less clear is the nature of …

Stating the focus, aim, or argument of a short paper

In this paper, I argue that ...
This paper has four key aims. Firstly, …

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 The central thesis of this paper is that ...
In the pages that follow, it will be argued that ...
In this essay, I attempt to defend the view that ...
Specifically, the following issues will be addressed:
Secondly, the study aims to assess the extent to which …
In the pages that follow, the following questions will be addressed:
The specific objective of this study was to …
This work examines the way in which the ...
An objective of this study was to investigate ...
This study set out to investigate the usefulness of ...
This dissertation seeks to explain the development of ...
This case study seeks to examine the changing nature of ...
The objectives of this research are to determine whether ...
The overall aim of this thesis is to review the evidence for …

Setting out the research questions or hypotheses

The hypothesis that will be tested is that ...
The research questions in this study focused on …
The central question in this dissertation asks how ...
Specifically, the following issues will be addressed: …
The specific questions which drive the research are: …
This research seeks to address the following questions:
The key research question of this study was whether or not ...
This study aimed to address the following research questions: …
The study sought to answer the following specific research questions: …
In particular, this dissertation will examine six main research questions: …

Describing the research design and the methods used

Data for this study were collected using...
Five works will be examined, all of which …
A mixed-method approach was employed using …
This investigation takes the form of a case-study...

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 This study draws on two theoretical frameworks …
Qualitative content analysis was used to examine …
This study utilised clustering techniques to identify …
Contemporary source material was used to examine …
This study was exploratory and interpretative in nature.
This study uses a qualitative case study approach to investigate …
The research data in this thesis are drawn from four main sources: ...

Outlining the structure of a short paper

The first section of this paper will examine ...
This paper begins by ... It will then go on to ...
The essay has been organised in the following way: ...
The remaining part of the paper proceeds as follows: ...
The main issues addressed in this paper are: a), b) and c).
This paper first gives a brief overview of the recent history of X.
This paper has been divided into four parts. The first part deals with ...Due to practical constraints, this
paper cannot provide a comprehensive review of...

Summarising the main research findings

The findings clearly indicate that …
The research has also shown that ...
These experiments confirmed that …
X made no significant difference to …
This study has found that generally ...
The investigation of X has shown that ...
The results of this investigation show that ...
X, Y and Z emerged as reliable predictors of ...
Multiple regression analysis revealed that the ...
The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that ...
The relevance of X is clearly supported by the current findings.
One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that ...

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Giving reasons for personal interest in the research
I became interested in Xs after reading ...
My interest in this area developed while I was …
I have worked closely with X for many years and ...
This research complements an earlier study which …
My personal experience of X has prompted this research.
My main reason for choosing this topic is personal interest.
The genesis of this thesis can be traced back to the time I spent …
It is my experience of working with X that has driven this research.
This project was conceived during my time working for X. As a medical advisor, I witnessed …

Describing the limitations of the current study

The thesis does not engage with ...
It is not the task of this paper to examine …
This study is unable to encompass the entire …
Establishing X is beyond the scope of this study.
It is beyond the scope of this study to examine the ...
A full discussion of X lies beyond the scope of this study.
The reader should bear in mind that the study is based on ...
Another potential problem is that the scope of my thesis may be too broad.

Highlighting interesting or surprising results

Interestingly, the X was observed to ...
This result is somewhat counterintuitive.
Interestingly, this correlation is related to ...
The more surprising correlation is with the ...
Surprisingly, only a minority of respondents …
The most surprising aspect of the data is in the ...
The correlation between X and Y is interesting because ...
The most striking result to emerge from the data is that ...
Interestingly, there were also differences in the ratios of ...
The single most striking observation to emerge from the data comparison was ...

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Surveys and interviews: Reporting response rates
The overall response to the survey was poor.
Thirty-two individuals returned the questionnaires.
The response rate was 60% at six months and 56% at 12 months.
Of the study population, 90 subjects completed and returned the questionnaire.
Of 150 patients who were sent invitations, 81 returned the reply slip, of whom 60 agreed to …
By the end of the survey period, data had been collected from 64 individuals, 23 of whom were …

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