An abstract is a document that summarizes a thesis, scholarly research report, creative work, project, or performance. It lists the work's goals, methodology, and findings, and it highlights the work's contributions to the discipline. The abstract must summarize your particular work's contributions and is not meant to be a treatise on the topics that form the foundation of your work.

A good abstract gives the reader a reason to investigate your work. If the reader can't learn the purpose, approach, and conclusions of your work from reading a summary of it, then he or she likely won't take the time needed to study it in full. Therefore, your abstract must identify your aims, describe the process you took to achieve those aims, and outline your conclusions, and it must do these things in a clear and engaging way.

There are different "best practices" for writing abstracts depending on your discipline. Science abstracts tend to emphasize the methodology and results more, while abstracts in the humanities describe the work's objectives in greater details. Abstracts for the performing and visual arts focus on the work's objectives while describing its methodology in terms of its genre, styles, and influences. The structure of your abstract will depend on the kind of work you are describing, but it always must identify the work's objectives, approach, and conclusions.

​Although not labeled as separate sections, an abstract includes distinct components that help it summarize the goals, approach, and findings of your work. Every abstract must include the following:  AimsWhy did you do this work? What problem did you try to solve, or what issue did you investigate? Did you have a particular hypothesis or viewpoint you wanted to test that your discipline has not adequately investigated? The opening sentences of your abstract should identify the problem, area, or thesis your work probes. If your work is in the sciences, one to three sentences should suffice for this section. Feel free to devote more space to this area if your work is in the humanities.  MethodologyIn this section, explain how you explored your work's focus. The content of this section will depend very much on your discipline. For a science work, list and describe the process your followed in your research. For example, explain that you collected bacteria samples from a particular location and investigated them using electron microscopy. If your work is in the humanities, describe the focus of your analyses, both quantitative and qualitative. If your work is in the performing or visual arts, identify the setting, styles, and media you employed. Write two to four sentences to provide this information.  ResultsWhat were the outcomes of your work? What were your findings? Write one to three sentences answering these questions. If the work is not yet complete, summarize preliminary results and indicate your next steps.   ConclusionThe abstract should end with one sentence that emphasizes the importance of the contributions of the work. In other words, why is your work worthy of the reader's interest? 

Unlike its dormant, changeless protagonist, the story of Sleeping Beauty has altered considerably with the passage of time. Beginning in the thirteenth-century Icelandic epic Volsunga Saga and the fourteenth-century Arthurian romance Perceforest, the tale developed into a form more recognizable to present-day readers in Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” (1636) and Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” the first story in his collection Histories ou contes du temps passe (1697). In 1982 Perrault’s version of Basile’s tale was translated by Angela Carter and published in Sleeping Beauty & Other Favourite Fairy Tales. Three years earlier, Carter had included a darkly poignant adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty story, “The Lady of the House of Love,” in The Bloody Chamber. In Carter’s narrative, Sleeping Beauty becomes a doomed vampire queen and her prince a British soldier fated to perish in World War I. “The Lady of the House of Love” combines the primal power of Basile’s tale with the sophistication of Perrault’s, while updating the Sleeping Beauty story by hybridizing it with gothic fiction and problematizing its traditional gender roles. Even as she ingeniously fashions a postmodern pastiche, Carter demonstrates a keen understanding of the reasons why this narrative has continued to fascinate generations of readers. Thus her adaptation, while sensitive to the evolving roles of men and women in our culture, enriches rather than diminishes the text. Because negotiating (or transgressing) barriers is crucial in all versions of Sleeping Beauty’s tale, “The Lady of the House of Love” pays appropriate homage to its textual forebears by cutting through the story’s tangled constructions of gender, age, and sexuality as through thorny thickets and (re)awakening the fertile loveliness hidden away at its center.

(Mustafa, Jamil. “‘The Lady of the House of Love’: Angela Carter’s Vampiric Sleeping Beauty.” Illinois Philological Association Annual Conference. Chicago, Illinois. April 7-8, 2006.)

Synchrophasor measurement units (PMUs) are an increasingly popular critical component of the emerging electrical smart grid because they provide unprecedented opportunities for wide-area monitoring and control. However, their high sampling rate creates challenges for data sharing data and for long-term storage, particularly as the number of deployed PMUs grows. Furthermore, industry standards and the requirements of various power system applications require that PMU data be stored without loss of information. Therefore, a means of reducing the size of PMU data archives without sacrificing meaningful signal content is necessary. The superiority of application-specific compression techniques over generic ones in many applications, such as image and video compression, suggests that a compression approach that is tailored to the unique attributes of power system data collected by PMUs might compress PMU data more efficiently than a generic technique. In this work, we explore some of the unique attributes of PMU data and use the results of this analysis to develop highly efficient signal- preserving compression techniques. We then present test results based on compression of both simulated and real-world data.  The tests show that the new algorithms developed for PMU data compression are an attractive alternative to generic compression techniques and have achieved compression ratios as high as 20 to 1. If these techniques prove generally applicable, PMU data may be stored much more efficiently and exchanged much more quickly.

(Klump, R., Agarwal, P., Tate, J.E., & Khurana, H. (2010). Lossless Compression of Synchronized Phasor Measurements (Abstract). IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) 2010 General Meeting.6)6

My creative project is a contemporary classical electro-acoustic chamber piece entitled Dreams and Disasters: Natural or Not. It is a multi-media work that includes live acoustic instruments, electronics, projected text and theatre. Its theme is multi-faceted in nature, investigating the complex realities of dreams/nightmares, and their counterpart in a modern world. Issues of reality, illusion, conflict, displacement, identity, and the integration (or not) of positive and negative aspects of technology are explored. Through my research, the original theme has developed further, investigating technology as a bridge, a peacemaker. What universal components can it contain – in an effort to balance the universal problems it can create? I feel this project provides no definitive answers, but rather a platform for discussion and interaction. The use of phonemes and various languages implies a universality, while the use of generated and manipulated sounds (from programs such as MAX and Logic) provide a different kind of commonality. Their complete uniqueness and newness expands a sound vocabulary for the whole world. Dr. Chuaqui’s expertise has helped me to explore the aforementioned music programs in more depth. For example, analyzed human voice samples aid in the creation of generated sound. Recorded sounds (mainly human) are manipulated and reinvented, at times interweaved with white noise. Live acoustic instruments and voices play together with electronics at points. Throughout the piece, there are links provided between man and technology. I have purposefully recorded voices from people of different races, countries, and genders, in an attempt to employ technology as a transcendent medium for all. I believe by using technology in a creative way, artists can help to rewrite a system for its use that is more holistic, user-friendly, and socially interactive…an aid for better communication and understanding among people. Perhaps through its use in the arts, technology can truly interact with our own deeper nature as human beings.

(abstract for a project entitled "Dreams and Disasters: Natural or Not" by Marie Grudzien, copied from http://www.ucur.org/abstracts.aspx#example3)

Chinese firms have increased significantly their foreign direct investments (FDI) in Africa. Our study attempts to investigate the reasons leading to such significant growth (relative to modest growth of the Western firms in Africa). In particular, we focus on the role played by the Chinese government. Using available information on nine Chinese and Western companies in Tanzania, we find two major differences between Chinese and Western FDI models in Africa. First, the Chinese government has been more actively involved in building economic ties and negotiations with the host country government for investment opportunities for Chinese firms. The Chinese government also provides valuable financial resources and infrastructure support for Chinese firms that invest in natural resource industries in Africa. The Western governments provide only general advisory information. Second, the Chinese firms in different industries, under the guidance and assistance of the Chinese government, form groups to provide multiple purpose projects, satisfy multiple needs of local communities, and therefore help to improve their economic conditions rapidly.  The western firms, however, act individually and contribute to improvement of local communities relatively slowly. We discuss the implications of the findings for research, government policy, and firm strategy.

(Li, J., Newenham-Kahindi, A., Chen, V. Z., & Shapiro, D.M. (2011).  Foreign Direct Investments in Natural Resource Industries in Africa:  The Chinese versus Western Models (Abstract).  Academy of International Business 2011 Conference Proceedings.  Retrieved from http://aib.msu.edu/events/2011/AIB2011_ConferenceProceedings.pdf)

Advanced directives are a simple, effective way to choose medical care treatment options at the end of life. The current literature indicates that nurses are often put in a position to assist patients and families, but lack the educational foundation guide the process. The aim of the study was to identify what information is necessary to incorporate into educational materials to assist nurses in guiding patients over 55 years of age in end of life decision making prior to a life threatening event. A survey was distributed to a convenience sample (n=350) of adults over the age of 55 asking specific questions regarding methods of end-of-life decision making, knowledge of advanced directives, personal health status, as well as demographic information. Analysis of the date identified four needs including: education for individuals over age 55 and over regarding the necessity for detailed discussions regarding personal values and beliefs; the importance of periodically reviewing and updating completed advanced directives; incorporate end-of-life planning into routine health care visits; and provide educational materials in an easy-to-read language-appropriate format. The results provided the foundation for the development and implementation of a train-the-trainer workshop for registered nurses. A pilot of the training workshop was successfully conducted.

(Elder, S., Piper L.A., Rombach, K., Wirth, A.,  & Smith, J. M. (2010). Development of a train-the trainer program for nurses providing end-of-life planning.)

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a social activist stance in educational leadership that fundamentally addresses social change and human emancipation.  This call for social activism is framed within neoliberal, neoconservative, and authoritarian populist discourses in the U.S., which to social justice educators and leaders had devastating effects on education.  Empirical data from an activist high school principal, activist university professor, and activist priest reflects their development of political clarity, political capacity, political collaboration, and an ethic of risk.  It is suggested that the work of socially active educational leaders needs to be broadened to include such things as public policy advocacy, networking, organizing, community development, and scholarship. Finally, the article concludes with a variety of ways educational leaders can demonstrate their social, moral, and political activism as they challenge the status quo, fight for social justice, and come to understand the politicized notion of leadership.

(Hoffman, L, 2010.  Social Activism in Education: A Politicized Notion of Leadership.  American Educational Research Association Annual Convention, Denver, CO.)

Now that you've learned what comprises a typical abstract and have seen a number of examples, you are ready to write your own. Remember, every abstract must identify

- the aims of your work. In other words, why did you do it?

- the methodology of your work. In other words, how did you do it?

- the results of your work. In other words, what did your work allow you to find?

- a conclusion statement, which summarizes the work's impact.

If you are new to writing abstracts, a good strategy might be to write sentences that address each of these four points. Then, connect them together to make your abstract.

Remember, your abstract should be no more than 250 words and must describe the purpose, approach, and significance of your efforts in an engaging way that entices the audience to pay attention to you.

Go on to the "Apply" page to apply for inclusion in the Celebration of Scholarship. You will be asked to provide

- a title for your work.

- a brief description that will be printed in the event program.

- keywords that will help classify your work.

- if you are a student, the name of a faculty mentor who will guide you as you develop your work.

- the type of presentation you wish to give.

- the abstract, the focus of this page and the key criterion for judging your work.

Good luck!