An abstract is a concise summary of a
research paper or entire thesis.
It is an original work, not an excerpted passage. An
abstract must be fully self-contained and make sense by
itself, without further reference to outside sources or to
the actual paper. It highlights key content areas, your
research purpose, the relevance or importance of your
work, and the main outcomes.
It is a well-developed single paragraph of approximately
250 words in length, which is indented and single
spaced. The function of the abstract is to outline briefly
all parts of the paper.
Although it is placed at the beginning of your paper,
immediately following the title page, the abstract should
be the last thing that you write, once you are sure of the
conclusions you will reach.