科技英语讲义(摘要写作).docVIP

Lecture 3 Abstract (1): Category, Structure, and General Writing Requirements As a miniature of the paper with a limited number of words, an abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceedings, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper’s purpose. Given its importance, we are to deal with the abstract writing in the following two lectures. Included in the lecture are different categories of the abstract, general structure of the abstract, general requirements in abstract writing, etc. Lecture Objectives After completing this lecture, you should be able to: 1. Distinguish different categories of the abstract 2. Understand the general structure of the abstract 3. Meet general writing requirements of the abstract Different Categories of the Abstract An abstract is a succinct summary of a piece of work, usually academic in nature. It is published in isolation from the main text and should therefore stand on its own and be understandable without reference to the whole piece. It should report the essential facts of the paper, and should not exaggerate or contain material that is not in the paper. Being a self-contained entity, the abstract holds a critical role compared with the other parts of the whole paper. An abstract is viewed as a mini-version of the paper, summarizing the content of the main body. A well-prepared abstract serves as a useful tool in searching for information and enables readers to identify the basic content of a paper quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interest, and finally to decide whether they need to read the paper in its entirety. Abstracts can be generally classified into three categories: descriptive, informational, and informational-descriptive. Descriptive Abstract A descriptive abstract usually states the general subject matter of the paper. It tells in an all-round way what the paper contains.