Most students start independent scientific work with writing an essay. At the same time, skills are acquired that will be useful in the future. What is an abstract? According to generally accepted terminology, this is a short, revised statement of the main theses of the primary text. It is a simple scientific work, the writing of which should be able to handle any first-year student.
Structure and standard
Certain requirements are imposed on the abstract. It should have the following structure:
- The name of the field of knowledge to which it belongs.
- Theme.
- Basic information about the source used (author, title, publishing data).
- Introduction
- The main idea of the source.
- Conclusion
- Content.
- Student comments.
What is an abstract plan ? Are there any requirements for him? As a rule, the last five points of the structure are included in the plan, while some of them may be optional (for example, comments of the referent). Written work must be executed in accordance with the standard, that is, have a title page, content, introductory and final parts.
Since the volume of a classical abstract is usually small (10-15 pages), a more detailed division is not necessary.
Introduction
This item is mandatory, unlike comments. Let us consider in more detail what is an introduction to the abstract. This is a chapter that shows the main problems of the source used, and also describes how important this document is for a particular area of knowledge.
What is the introduction to the abstract, it is easy to understand if you recall the contents of a similar section in a textbook or in other scientific literature. As a rule, the introductory part always tells what the text of the document is, what questions are addressed in it, why it was written.
Footnotes
Teachers sometimes require brief notes in the text . What are footnotes in the abstract? What are they needed for? Footnotes are concise comments containing brief information regarding the facts referred to in the text. They allow the reader to refer to the source.
Such notes may be links to books, films, websites, etc., referred to in the document.
Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page, under the main part, and are highlighted in a smaller font.
What is the essence of writing an abstract?
Many students wonder: why spend time rewriting abstracts from a book? In order to better understand what an abstract is, it is necessary to find out what is the point of writing this simplest scientific work.
There are several types of such written works, but in training activities usually only one of them is used:
- Classical abstract. What it is? This is the result of processing one or more scientific papers on a given problem.
- A standard (and optimal from the point of view of the student’s teaching methodology) essay is often written on the specific work of one author. It should be concisely set out the main theses of the study book with conclusions.
You can familiarize yourself with samples of such creativity by looking at the abstract collection of a scientific organization. And in any educational institution, a student will be required to create a similar work on a major subject.
Thus, the meaning of writing an essay is mastering the skills of collecting information, its subsequent analysis and compilation, as well as the acquisition of the ability to single out the main thing.
Writing algorithm
What is an abstract in technical terms, that is, how is it created? There is a writing algorithm that you must adhere to. Of course, he is an example. Only written scientific work created by the following algorithm can be called an abstract:
- The first thing you need to do when you get the job is to evaluate its complexity. Usually writing takes no more than a month. During this time, with the proper skill, it is quite possible to make a couple of reports or coursework. However, the freshman is not at such a pace, and the task must be taken very seriously. First of all, you should not put off writing work in a long box. You can’t rely on memory, you need to fix what exactly they want from you.
- Usually the title of the abstract is similar to the source. You need to go through the libraries and find out the availability of the corresponding publication in the funds. You need to start with the faculty book depository, gradually expanding the circle of search. It’s good if the required volume is in the subscription. Remember: if a topic is asked in the first year, then it is very convenient for this. Therefore, the corresponding book must certainly be available, and not in one copy.
- As soon as you get to the desired volume - order it and start to work. Be patient, take a folder with paper or a notebook with you and get ready to write down. Your goal is to understand the meaning of the text written by the author. Therefore, do not be lazy and read the book in its entirety. After mastering each chapter, it is necessary to find the main meaning in it, which should be outlined.
- Now we state the result on paper. To do this, we connect all theses with the arguments that were also written out during the work. The presentation of the text can be chronological or analytical (corresponds to the structure of the topic).
A few secrets to making things work
To write a good and dignified text, you need to adhere to some recommendations:
- Remember that all scientific works are divided into two categories: those in which there is a main idea, and those in which it is not. Alas, it happens. Choose scientific work from the first category as a source. You do not have to think over the author and seek out a rational idea in a huge number of words. In such books, as a rule, the language is simple, theses are highlighted, there are arguments, there are conclusions.
- See what sources the author used. This is not difficult. Perhaps some of them will interest you.
- You can not philosophize and simply retell the text, following the author’s plan. But if you want to be noticed by a teacher, present the material in an original way.
Write or download?
In order to finally understand what an abstract is, you need to create at least one work yourself. You can do it easier: download the finished text on the Internet, order it to be written by specialists involved in student assignments, copy a few pages from the book and give the result to your work. But is it worth it?
By doing so, the student not only does not learn how to write analytical texts, but also does not acquire useful skills in working with information, which can not be done in any profession.
So, what is an abstract, the definition of which is given above in scientific language? We can say that this is a statement on paper of your thoughts on some complex issue. The degree of its relevance depends entirely on your status (student, graduate student, dissertation), the nature of the work (academic or research), the scientific school within which you work, and the mass of other factors.