1.1. Stage 3: Compile an Abstract
Having developed a thesis statement and a logical argument, the third stage of LWPC is to compile these developments into an abstract.
An abstract is the most important part of a research paper. It is read independently from the paper and it functions to advertise the paper to as many readers as possible in the big wild world. Whether or not the readers are interested in reading the details of the paper purely depends on the quality of the paper’s abstract.
Since an abstract functions to advertise a research paper, it is common to regard an abstract as a concise summary of the paper. But it remains unclear what constitute the summary. An abstract is normally very short. As far as an abstract in English is concerned, the number of words normally ranges from 100 to 200 in a typical science paper, and from 200 to 300 in a typical humanities paper. Because of the short length, an abstract cannot summarize all the elements of a research paper.
To make the advertisement more effective, an abstract is given a specific purpose in LWPC. That is, an abstract functions to let the readers of a research paper grasp the central idea of the paper, and how the idea is supported. Thus the most important paper elements to be included in an abstract are (1) the paper’s thesis statement and (2) the major supports for the thesis statement (e.g. experimental results, supporting claims, etc.). The thesis statement should be made as clear and specific as possible, and its connection with its major supports should be made as convincing as possible. Accordingly, an abstract in its ideal form is the concise summary of the main argument made in a research paper.
In order to make a better sense of the main argument being summarized, a high qualify abstract, regardless of whether it is written for a science or humanities paper, should cover the following basic elements.