Writing Accessible Abstracts
Faculty of Medical Sciences
Writing Development Centre
Robinson Library
For enquiries about workshops, please email wdc@ncl.ac.uk
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Writing Development Centre
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Aims of the session
To work on some practical aspects of effective abstract
writing:
1. What are abstracts for, and what different types are there?
2. What makes an engaging and accessible title?
3. Criteria: what are organisers/selection committees really
looking for?
4. Writing tips – structure, audience, content, style, process
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Writing Development Centre
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‘Short and Simple’
Extreme Abstracts
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The Abstract’s Job
Reflect on your own experience:


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What contexts have you encountered abstracts in before?
What do you do with them? How do you read/use them?
What do you use them for?
How well do they serve this purpose?
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The Purposes of Abstracts
 Abstracts are used in different contexts:
 The PhD Thesis
 The Journal Article
 The Conference Programme
 Abstracts are used for different purposes:
 The Examiner/Editor/Organiser
 The Audience (narrow, broad)
 Abstracts may therefore be read in different ways,
but always isolated from the main text
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Titles
Titles need to both inform and engage. They are the first (and
possibly only) thing your audience will encounter.
 Create an informative and engaging conference paper title
based on your own research (NOT one used for real!)
 In pairs, feedback and improve them
 In groups of four, evaluate the titles each member
has generated. Criteria: informative, engaging
 Select one title from your group to put forward to the whole
group vote
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Our titles:
Which of these will we select?
Transcranial direct current stimulation, a new therapeutic treatment for
attentional disfunction in Lewy body dementia
The impact of TMD on diet and nutrition
Old Versus New: A molecular comparison of phototherapy devices
Developing a novel technique to prevent the transmission of
mitochondrial DNA disease
Why are medical and military staff resistant to vaccination?
A final criterion:
accurate
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Title Tips
 Complex science doesn’t necessarily mean complex
language: simple and straightforward titles are best.
 Jargon or Terminology? Abbreviations and Acronyms?
 Conventions And Cliches: ‘Traditional’ Title Formats in
Context
 Your title should pass the ‘Three Second Rule’: be readily
understood within three seconds
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Title Tips
 Frontload– put the most important words
near the beginning
 Example: Grottomycin versus scabicillin in
acute sinusitis in elderly patients: a randomised
controlled trial = A randomised control trial of …
(Fraser et al, p. 14)
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Selection Criteria
You are organising a conference and have two places left. There
are four abstracts in front of you. Which two will you choose?
In your group of four:
Step One: Decide your selection criteria – 4 - 6 aspects to
judge them on
Step Two: Read the four abstracts and decide which two to
accept based on your selection criteria.
Step Three: Identify the general positive and negative principles
you’ve seen in these abstracts
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Writing Tips: Structure
Good abstracts answer 5 main questions:
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

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What did you do?
Why did you do it?
How did you do it?
What were your findings?
So what? Why are your findings important? What
contribution do they make? What are their
implications?
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Writing Tips: audience
 Think about your audience for THIS abstract: who exactly
are they, and what is their likely level of knowledge and
vested interest?
 Known > Unknown, Old > New: Keep the background
section brief: move on to your contribution quickly
 Avoid unnecessarily long-winded signposting sentences
(“The purpose of this study was to …”)
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Writing Tips: content
 Abstracts should be self-contained
 Every result should have a corresponding method
 No need to report all results in the abstract, just enough to
indicate the outcome and show that the study’s aims have
been addressed
 Tenses: present tense for established facts (background
section) and generalisations (conclusion); past tense for
your specific actions/findings (methods and results).
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Writing Tips: style
 Use the active voice (Aspirin prevented clotting) rather
than the passive (Clotting was prevented by aspirin)
 Be precise and specific (i.e. give specific details rather
than saying something was ‘highly prevalent’)
 Keep sentences a manageable length (check everything
that runs to three lines or more): reading aloud can help
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Writing Process
 Start small and add – don’t try to cut existing text
down
 Take the title you created earlier in the workshop
 Write a 50 word abstract on this title
 What else would you need to add to this to make it
complete?
 Add in another 50 words to include these details
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Bibliography
Fraser, J, Fuller, L and Hutber G. 2010. Creating Effective
Conference Abstracts and Posters in Biomedicine: 500 Tips
for Success. Oxford: Radcliffe, 1998.
Nature: Resources for Authors How to construct a Nature
Summary Paragraph
http://www.nature.com/authors/author_resources/how_write.h
tml
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Writing Development Centre
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The Writing Development Centre
 Understanding assignment types, questions, instructions and marking
criteria
 Critical thinking, critiquing and reviewing literature
 Note-taking from lectures and reading
 Planning and structuring writing (incl. paragraphing)
 Academic writing style (incl. fundamentals of grammar)
 Understanding and using feedback to improve your work
 Referencing, citing and avoiding plagiarism
 Managing time, work and writing (incl. writers block and
procrastination)
 Exams and Revision
 Managing research projects, dissertations and theses
 Presentations and posters
 Learning effectively in lectures, seminars, classes, labs etc
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Writing Development Centre
University Library
The Writing Development Centre
Level 2, Robinson Library
Our team offers:
- One-to-one tutorials on study
skills and all stages and types of
academic writing
- A programme of workshops on aspects
of study and academic writing
- Online resources
You can book appointments and workshops with us
online: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/
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Writing Development Centre
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