Abstract Writing

If you are looking to present your work at a scientific conference, your abstract is vital! Your abstract is an overview of your work that concisely describes the content and highlights of your presentation. The abstract is a tool to sell your ideas to conference organisers and then to conference delegates. As the first thing people will see about your presentation, your abstract must entice them to see your full work.

Questions to ask yourself before writing an abstract

• What kind of presentations is this conference likely to attract? How can you make yours fit in, but also how can you make yours stand out?
• What are the hot topics in your field right now? If your presentation is on a popular topic, how can you make your presentation stand out from others doing the same?
• What is your work about and what novel work have you done? Explain what you intend to include in your presentation.
• Focus on the new ideas – what are you presenting that is new and exciting, and why should people be interested in hearing it?

Tips for Writing an Abstract

• The Title is the first contact that readers will have with your abstract. It must communicate something of the substance to the experts in your field as well as to the novices who will be interested
• Make your abstract fascinating, enticing and different
• Focus on the reader’s needs, not the writer’s desires – what do people reading this abstract need to know?
• Use plain English wherever possible. Your abstract should be understandable by intelligent people not intimately familiar with the particular field
• Look at abstracts that have been accepted from previous conferences for inspiration
• Stick to the word count
• Use some structure (headings or paragraphs) to make your abstract clearer
• Get someone else to review your abstract – ideally both someone who is familiar with your work, and also someone who is not

Things to Avoid when Writing an Abstract

•  Typos, poor English and abstracts that are too long
• Using too much jargon and acronyms and not using plain English wherever possible
• Focusing too much on the details. Delving too far into the small details distracts the reader from the main point of the research
• Failing the “Breath test”. It should be possible to read each sentence of the abstract aloud, comfortably, after taking just a single breath per sentence

We hope that you find these tips useful. Have fun writing your abstract!