Thesis Archives

How to write a thesis abstract

July 6, 2012 by Roy Johnson

tutorial – guidance notes – example – tips

A thesis abstract – definition

A thesis abstract is a digest or a shorter version of the whole thesis. The abstract draws out in summary what’s in the complete thesis. It might also be known as a précis or a synopsis. The term abstract derives from the Latin ab— (away from) and tract— (to draw).

Purpose of an abstract

The original purpose of an abstract is to give an overview of the whole work. This enables a reader to determine the relevance of the thesis for their own purposes.

For instance, a librarian might read the abstract in order to know how to catalogue the thesis. Specialist researchers would read the abstract to see if the work as a whole covered the same topic on which they were working.

The function of the abstract is to prepare the reader for the full document. This is why the substance of the abstract must reflect the essence of the research in terms of —

topic
focus of the hypothesis
methodology
results
rationale

For a supervisor, it sets the work in a useful context of overview. For a fellow student it facilitates research by indicating the content in summary and therefore making selection of resources more efficient.

Form

The abstract is a detachable, unbound section of the thesis normally comprising a single A4 page.

Length

The abstract should be very concise – maybe as little as a single paragraph of (say) 500 words. That’s why an abstract is quite difficult to write. You need to compress the whole of the thesis into an abbreviated series of statements, omitting illustrative details. There is no room for any padding. It requires good summarizing skills.

Example

Here’s an example of an abstract from a study of fire in plant-mammal interactions. Below it is an edited version showing that the abstract follows the criteria enumerated above.

The Latitudinal Defense Hypothesis predicts that levels of defense are highest near the equator and decrease toward the poles. This hypothesis is based mainly on insect herbivory that occurs during the summer. Mammilian herbivory in the winter is a more likely driver of plant defense levels in northern latitudes. Early successional trees such as birches are favored by fire and provide an important food source for mammals like snowshoe hares. In order to test the Latitudinal Defense Hypothesis, we collected birch seeds from eight locations in northwestern Canada and grew seedlings in a common garden. We assessed levels of defense by counting resin glands because resin glands are negatively correlated with snowshoe hare preference. This research will provide valuable information regarding the biogeography of defense and address the role of fire in plant-mammal interactions on a continental scale.

Analysis of an example abstract

1. Initial statement of the overall topic.

The Latitudinal Defense Hypothesis predicts that levels of defense are highest near the equator and decrease toward the poles. This hypothesis is based mainly on insect herbivory that occurs during the summer.

2. Brief statement of the specific focus of the hypothesis.

Mammilian herbivory in the winter is a more likely driver of plant defense levels in northern latitudes. Early successional trees such as birches are favored by fire and provide an important food source for mammals like snowshoe hares.

3. Explanation of the methodology

In order to test the Latitudinal Defense Hypothesis, we collected birch seeds from eight locations in northwestern Canada and grew seedlings in a common garden. We assessed levels of defense by counting resin glands because resin glands are negatively correlated with snowshoe hare preference.

4. Indication of the results

We found that the number of resin glands from the seedlings raised in a common garden was less than those collected in the eight locations chosen for our study….

4. Rationale of research

This research will provide valuable information regarding the biogeography of defense and address the role of fire in plant-mammal interactions on a continental scale.

Structure of the abstract

The chronological structure of the abstract is not as important as the crucial need to include the four topics exemplified in the example given above.

In some cases, ‘Rationale’ might precede ‘Results’. But it does make obvious sense to begin with the ‘Initial statement of the topic’.

How to write the abstract

Your abstract should be written after you’ve finished your thesis. The difficult part is to summarise in one page a substantial research project which might have taken up to two years to complete.

Preparation

Tell one of your enlightened peers what your thesis is about
Ask if they’ve understood your account
If they have understood, write down what you said as quickly as possible in rough draft
If they haven’t understood, tell them again in a different way
Write down that version in rough draft form

Writing process

Write the title of your thesis then add the word ‘abstract’
Type the numbered headings shown above.
Use your notes to fill in the content in each case.
Read the abstract through.
Remove the headings but keep the separate paragraphs
Tidy up the expression so that the prose is fluent

Notes

Make sure that you –

Write your abstract in the same style and tone as the thesis
Remember it’s just a taster to the main event – but like a menu it has to show what’s there
Include all four elements shown in the sample
Don’t boast about your research or your achievements in the abstract. Let the work speak for itself.
Don’t be tempted to rush the abstract, thinking it’s less important than the thesis. It’s all part of the same project
Don’t use personal references or colloquial expressions. This is a professional document.
Don’t include sentimental acknowledgements in the abstract.

Details

The abstract is normally written in the past tense. That’s because it is written when the research has been completed and the thesis has already been written. The abstract should also be written last.

Do not use headings in an abstract. For instance – Introduction, Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Your explanation of the thesis should be written in continuous prose.

The abstract should be written using the third person passive mode. ‘Samples of the oxides were analysed by …’. It’s possible that the thesis itself is written using the first person – ‘I (or we) collected samples using …’ – but the abstract needs to be more impersonal and objective.

Don’t use abbreviations, contractions, and acronyms in the abstract. If this is unavoidable, you should write out the term in full the first time it is used, followed by the abbreviation in brackets. For example – “Magnetic Photo-Scanning (MPS) was used to …”

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Succeeding with a Masters Dissertation

May 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a step-by-step guide to post-graduate writing

Many students find the idea of writing a masters dissertation at postgraduate level a daunting prospect. And that’s quite understandable. They will probably never before have had to produce a work of 10,000 to 15,000 words; they will be uncertain about its content; and they will almost certainly never have seen what a dissertation looks like. John Biggam’s book is a guide to the entire process of developing postgraduate writing skills, from start to finish, and the most useful aspect of his approach is that he breaks the procedure down into separate steps and explains each of them in detail.

He starts from what is often the most puzzling stage of all – defining the project. Many students know the topic which interests them most, but turning this into a research proposal can be a long and frustrating process. It’s easy to lose a lot of time changing your mind and pursuing ideas which shift amorphously the very moment you think you have pinned them down.

He offers templates to help solve this problem, outlines the key issues at each stage, and even points to the most common traps that students fall into. This is valuable advice – and it comes from a research supervisor who has seen hundreds and hundreds of examples.

His chapters follow the stages of the process of producing the dissertation itself. How to define the project; making a start with the writing; doing a literature review; choosing the right research methods; dealing with the evidence and producing a conclusion; writing an abstract; and how to present the finished work.

Embedded within all this there are other important issues such as how to create structure, how to define your terms, and how to link one part of your writing to the next so as to create a continuous argument.

He also deals with the issue which many students right up to PhD level find difficult – how to quote from secondary sources and use a referencing system accu rately. He recommends the Harvard system as being popular with both students and tutors alike. Also included is how to conduct both qualitative and quantitative surveys, and what to do with the results when they have been assembled.

One of the suggestions he makes more than once which I thought very useful is that students should make their claims clearly and boldly. Your piece of research may be modestly (and wisely) limited in scope, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t treat it as something important, even if it is only to make your purpose clear to the person reading and assessing it.

He also offers some very good tips for dealing with the oral defence of your work – the viva – and he ends with what many students will probably find the most useful of all – sample extracts of introductions, literature reviews, research methods, project structures, and questionnaires.

Read the advice, follow it, even use the book as a source of reference, and I’m fairly confident that it will help you to produce a masters dissertation that succeeds. Just like it says on the tin.

Buy the book at Amazon UK

Buy the book at Amazon US

John Biggam, Succeeding with your Masters Dissertation, Berkshire: Open University Press, 2008, pp.268, ISBN 0335227198

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Writing your doctoral dissertation

May 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

guide to advanced academic study and writing skills

Do people at doctoral dissertation level need writing guides? Well yes, they do, because a composition of this scope usually presents difficulties most of us have never come across before. After all, we don’t produce 50,000 word research projects just for fun, do we? Rita Brause starts by explaining the differences between a dissertation and a long term paper [UK=coursework essay]. These are important distinctions which are often learned by most students only at the expense of much anguish and re-writing.

She also stresses just how much anybody will learn during the process of writing a dissertation, which is the sort of insight unlikely to be available to someone approaching this experience for the first time. She analyses practical examples to show the important structural elements of a dissertation, and then goes on to explain the stages in the doctoral process – including making an application, learning the language of institutions, and fulfilling all their technical requirements. These elements need to be taken into account even before the writing begins, and she justifies the attention she gives to them quite convincingly on the grounds that many students who fail to complete their research do so because they had no idea what to expect when they started out.

It is the US system she is describing, which contains the element of working to a committee that is not found in the UK system, but when it comes to the business of writing, all the issues of preparation, organisation, and intellectual stamina are identical.

The heart of the book comes three-quarters way through, where she describes in detail the process of locating and defining a topic, as well as the type of questions you should ask in order to ‘refine’ a topic or turn an observation into a proposal. These are the stages which in my experience of post-graduate teaching cause students most problems. A research proposal which has not been clearly defined is like an intellectual quagmire. No matter how much new material is generated, the student will be sucked ever deeper into the morass by competing priorities and a lack of focus.

There are three short bibliographies on dissertations, the academic world, and research methodology; but what I think might appeal most of all to the intended audience of this writing guide is an interesting collection of tips (some quite daunting) from former doctoral candidates. There’s often nothing quite so convincing as the reports of first-hand experience.