Free Dissertation Help: A Manual For Composing A Good Abstract

Writing a dissertation involves more than just writing the dissertation itself. This lengthy project includes researching, organizing, and so much more. Students not only have to write the dissertation, but they have to write an abstract, introduction, methods and discussion, and conclusion. The introduction, methods and discussion, and conclusion are a part of the actual dissertation, but the abstract is completely separate part. Students often struggle with the dissertation, even though it is the shortest part of the entire project.

What is an abstract?

An abstract is a brief summary of the lengthy dissertation. While this might sound like an easy thing to do, it can be tough to reduce a project that is many pages long down to a few paragraphs.

What types of abstracts exist?

There are two different types of abstracts that can be used for a dissertation: informative and descriptive. The descriptive abstract is much shorter than the other type and should only be around 150 words. The informative abstract should be much longer, between 200 and 300 words. This involves a serious amount of revision in order to bring this huge project down to a small paragraph or two.

What goes into writing an abstract?

Your abstract should include a few different components. The first is the reason for writing the dissertation which should explain why someone would want to read your project. The second component is the actual problem and the claim that you will be defending in your dissertation. Thirdly, the abstract needs to include the methods that you used to defend the claim. You should also include the evidence that you used, too. After that, the results need to be shared, but you should not include overly specific details. Lastly, you should include the implications that your claim could build. You should share details about how your dissertation will continue to increase the scope of this topic.

What should not go into an abstract?

While the abstract includes several components, there are a few things you should not include in the project. Since this work is yours (with evidence from other sources), you should avoid writing about the other sources that you used. Save that for the actual dissertation. You should not put anything in the abstract that is not include in your dissertation. You should also avoid defining new terms in the abstract, too.