How to Write an Abstract

How to Write Annotations

An annotation is a summary made of information in a book, document, online record, video, software code or other information. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. Creating these comments, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.

As you read, section by section, chapter by chapter, consider doing the following, if useful or necessary:

* At the end of each chapter or section, briefly summarize the material.

* Title each chapter or section as soon as you finish it, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections.

* Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words. Annotating requires you to think critically about a text.

The purpose of an abstract is to serve as a link between the title of a scientific article (research study) which may be only a few words long and the full article which may be 8-10 or more pages long. The abstract is a useful summary of the article that provides justification for the research. The abstract allows the reader to conclude whether the full article is worth reading.

The abstract should outline the objectives of the research study and its rationale. The materials and methods of the study should be stated with the statistical methods used. The results of the research should be concisely stated. A brief interpretation with the supporting statistics should be provided and a conclusion briefly stated.

There are two main types of abstracts: informative and descriptive ones.

An informative abstract summarizes the entire paper, including the key themes and purpose of the paper, major facts bearing on the conclusion, and a summary of key findings. This is the most common type of abstract.

A descriptive abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on identifying the purpose of the paper, and describing the major areas to be covered in the report. It would be appropriate, for instance, in a review paper reporting on a survey of literature in a particular field.

Task: look through the rules of summarizing, annotating and abstracting given above and prepare informative and descriptive summaries (1200 and 300 symbols accordingly) of the texts on interdisciplinary issues. Prepare informative and descriptive annotations as well.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29