Consequently, students are exposed to a Youtube video on Writing an abstract - common mistakes (2012) in
which Benjamin Noble comments on typical mistakes made by Russian students (see Fig. 1 below), which in fact
are very similar to those the Czech students make (cf. Frydrychova Klimova, 2013b).
While watching the video, students make notes about the most common mistakes in abstract writing which are
divided into three areas: vocabulary, academic formalities and text organization. After viewing the video, the teacher
asks students about the structure of an abstract which is usually divided into the following parts:
x Aim/goal of an abstract
x Methods used for the research or survey
x Findings/results
x Recommendations/implications for further research or survey
Then s/he discusses with students the most common mistakes which occurred in the abstract. Thus, students
should:
x prefer short words of Anglo-Saxon origin to long words of Latin origin (e.g. use to utilize);
x use the right collocations such low speed, high speed …;
x avoid using colloquial words (so, stuff …);
x not use the abbreviation etc. at all because it is not academic;
x always explain the acronyms first;
x always use informal style of writing;