What exactly is an abstract?

A one-paragraph overview of any project work for undergraduates is what an abstract is. Abstracts are written before research defence. The abstract in a research enables readers to immediately comprehend the aim and important ideas of a work and informs your supervisor whether reading the complete work is worthwhile.

Why should you write an abstract?

Readers can make conclusions regarding your idea based on the abstract. Your sponsoring professor can use the abstract to determine how well your study is progressing. It is used by the conference organizer to determine whether your project meets the supervisor's criteria. Your abstract is used by the defence audience (teachers, administrators, colleagues, and presenters' families) to decide whether or not to grade you properly. All of these readers must be considered in your abstract.

How does an abstract appeal to such a large number of people?

This abstract's target audience is as broad as feasible, ranging from expert to layperson. You must strike a balance between creating an abstract that demonstrates your knowledge while still being understandable (with some effort) by lay members of the audience. Use as little technical jargon as possible and explain it as much as feasible. Before using an abbreviation, always use the complete term [DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs), for example]. Remember that you are an expert in the topic about which you are writing; don't assume that the reader will share your insider knowledge.

What information should be included in the abstract?

Consider your abstract to be a simplified summary of your entire project. The reader should comprehend the nature of your research question after reading it.
Although the content varies depending on the topic and topic, all abstracts, whether in the sciences or the humanities, should have the following information:
1. The purpose of the project identifying the area of study to which it belongs.
2. The research problem that motivates the project.
3. The methods used to address this research problem, documents or evidence analyzed.
4. The conclusions reached or, if the research is in progress, what the preliminary results of the investigation suggest, or what the research methods demonstrate.
5. The significance of the research project. Why are the results useful? What is new to our understanding as the result of your inquiry?

Whatever type of research you are conducting, your abstract should address the following questions for the reader: What do you want to know? What is the significance of this? How are you going to study it? What will you utilize to back up your claims? What are the implications of these findings? What do they imply?

Stylistics Considerations For Writing A Standard Abstract

The abstract should be one paragraph in length and should not exceed the word count. Edit it thoroughly to ensure that it adheres to the Four C's of abstract writing:
Complete - it covers all of the project's major components.
It is concise — there is no extraneous wordiness or content.
It's simple – it's readable, well-organized, and doesn't use a lot of jargon.
It is cohesive because it flows seamlessly between the sections.

The significance of clear language during abstract writing

Because all researchers hope that their work will be valuable to others, and because good scholarship is increasingly being used across disciplines, it is critical that the language of your abstracts be understandable to non-specialists. Simplify your vocabulary. Friends from another major will immediately notice what has to be clarified. Problem areas to look for include:
Remove all jargon. Displaying your technical vocabulary will not convey the worth of your research. If a technical term must be used, include a non-technical equivalent to assist a non-specialist in deducing the term's meaning.
Remove unnecessary words such as superfluous modifiers, pompous diction, and excessive description.
Avoid linking together nouns (make the relationship clear with prepositions).
Remove phrases like "it is my opinion that," "I have decided," "the key issue supporting my position concerns," or "surely there is little dispute as to..." Concentrate entirely on what the reader needs to know.

Below is an example of a standard Abstract

Sample Research topic: Effectiveness Of Social Media Platforms In Interpersonal Communication Among Students Of Abia State University During The Covid-19 Lockdown

Abstract
The study was aimed at investigating the effectiveness of social media platforms on interpersonal communication among students of Abia state university. The survey research was used in this study to sample the opinion of respondents. This method involved random selection of respondent who were administered with questionnaires. The target population of the study comprised students of selected departments in Abia state university. The questionnaire administered was one hundred and ten (110) copies and one hundred copies retrieved which constitute the sample size. The descriptive and analytical approach was adopted using Chi-square to test and analyze the hypotheses earlier stated. The findings revealed that there is a significant effect of social media platforms on interpersonal communication among Abia state university students during covid-19 lockdown and that there is a significant relationship between social media platforms usage and interpersonal communication among Abia state university students during covid-19 lockdown. It was therefore concluded from the findings that social media platforms have a high potential to help inform and increase awareness, education, and healthcare during the coronavirus crisis period. It was recommended that Governments and experts can also use these experiences from social media to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 disease and other similar future crises.