With the start of the new year the calls for abstracts to present at local, regional, and national meetings are either already going or coming down the pipe. One of the challenges as a student and professional for that matter is crafting an abstract for a presentation. In most cases, the presentation will represent work that is ongoing or will happen before the meeting. So without a first draft of a paper abstracts can be challenging! But with a bit of a formulaic approach the abstract can come together relatively quickly. The formula below, shared with by Dr. Schumann has proved useful to students to get that first abstract draft. There are 8 parts with each part roughly equating to 1 or more sentences.
- Generalized topic statement
- Hone in on topic/need/issue
- Identify the exact topic and/or describe the “hole” in our understanding
- State how this study aims to fill the “hole”: what is/was your objective?
- 2-3 sentences of study design and field methodology
- 1-2 sentences of analytical techniques
- Result(s) 1-3 sentences
- Implication, management recommendation, or what is the broader application of your result(s) (1 sentence)
A good strategy is to first take the 8 parts and fill them in with coordination of your advisor or mentor. Then craft the abstract. Note the formula is not a hard or fast rule, you may need to consolidated sentences to get to the word limit. The formula helps ensure you have the appropriate elements and then content can be consolidated as needed. Most abstracts are approximately 250 works, some may go as high was 300 and others may be as low as 125. But because you have 300 words to work with it does not mean you need to use all of them!
Two last points on presentation abstracts.
- The title is what folks will look at to see of they want to attend. In almost all cases what is presented in the abstract will not wholly match that talk, alot can happen between the time the abstract is due and the actual talk! So don’t fret if your end presentation doesn’t match your abstract, but do spend some time coming up with a good title that captures where you think you will be and can reasonably match the end presentation.
- Be sure you identify who the coauthors of the presentation are early on! Most work is not done in a vacuum and therefore adding folks that have a contribution to the project can and should be listed as a coauthor. Coauthorship is a converstion to have with your advisor or mentor.
In closing, the abstract is important to get you to the stage to present and the title is important to get folks to come to the stage!