Geography Academic Writing Course
How the write better abstracts?
Petr Sudický
KAA FF MU
sudicky@phil.muni.cz
Academic Writing in English
My research is excellent and will speak for itself!
● international character of academia
● conventions and models of each discipline
● writing style equally important as content
● academic English
– clear structure, thesis statement at the beginning
– formulaic language
● quality in lies not in being particularly inventive, but
in the mastery of the discipline-specific language
What is a good abstract?
What is your idea of a well-written abstract?
“A well-written abstract should be powerful
enough to persuade the reader/reviewer that the
research article/dissertation itself is worth
publishing/reading.”
Abstract functions
Why on earth do we have to write the abstracts?
1) screening devices – reader's decision
2) mini-texts – short summary
3) preview – roadmap for reader's
4) help for reviewers – oversight of the paper
5) indexing help – writers and editors
! writing ability of the author + novelty of the topic
Abstract structure
Is there a general structure for abstracts?
1) introduction/general background
2) aim/purpose of the work
3) methodology applied
4) results and outcomes
5) discussion/evaluation
clear structure = easy reading = positive feedback
Structure of dissertation abstracts
Abstract structure types
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Abstracts and sub-disciplines
Influences on abstract writing
● norms of the journal, conference
● influence of the supervisor
● timing, time of writing
● general writing skills
● formal academic writing training
● purpose of the abstract
● gravity of the occasion
Filling the structure with words
“Producing a piece of academic writing, such as an
essay, a research report, a summary, or a thesis, can
sometimes be a difficult task. Even when we knoe what
we want to write about, the question is: how do we
express our ideas adequately in an academic paper?
[Usually], consulting a grammar book or writer's guide
may not provide a straightforward answer, and it can be
very interruptive for the writing process. Today, we will
look into a quick and easy alternative: we will learn how
to look up a word or phrase and how it is used in
corpus data.” (Matt O'Donnel)
Thank you for your attention!
Petr Sudický
sudicky@phil.muni.cz