Writing a dissertation abstract
A dissertation abstract is a short summary of the entire paper. It gives the readers a decent response on how to perceive your work and is generally considered to be a study overview, not mentioning the conclusions. You put a dissertation abstract after the title of the work, which is a typical pattern for this kind of academic work.
An abstract also informs your audience as to the topic of your dissertation and gives them a general idea of your statement. In general, we might say that dissertation abstracts are descriptions of the future work and should be viewed by an examiner as such. They are usually written at the beginning of the work and can even be regarded as a separate paper, which is contained in the university database.
A dissertation abstract is what we write to attract attention to our research. Its main purpose is to ignite interest in the audience and inspire them to read further. A good abstract performs all these functions without being too vague and obscure. The abstract has an objective of providing the readers with information in a condensed state, and the importance of it cannot be overstated, as it does not only stand for the preface, but also allows your teacher to assess the preamble before reading the whole text.
Structure of the dissertation abstract
Here, we have to clarify the point by saying the number of words in your abstract mostly depends on the type of paper. Master’s thesis requires 150 words in general, while Doctoral dissertation limitations may vary from 300 to 350 words. To provide the structural aesthetics, you might want to limit your dissertation abstract to 250 words.
The structure of the thesis is aimed to reflect the body of the whole paper, so you have to study the word limitations before you start. Also, make sure you understand your teacher’s requirements on a specific type of abstract and include the major elements in your presentation. Assess the number of the chapters in your paper and decide whether you need one or two sentences to summarize the idea of each paragraph. If your thesis includes five parts, you may want to increase the number of supporting statements.
Research specification
Dissertation abstract is written to show the components of your findings. We do not use “results” on purpose, because the summary should be as brief as possible, and cannot include much data on a research basis. This part of the dissertation abstract should answer the main questions and provide relevant answers for your paper in general.
- Did you manage to conduct a complete research on the topic without omitting major points and details?
- Are your findings relevant and up-to-date?
- Do they support the existing statement?
- Does your finding present an independent concept?
- What are the key elements of personal exploration?
- Does the abstract reinforce the importance of your research?
Abstract summary
Summarize the components of your work in a condensed manner. This will help your teacher determine whether you conduct an empirical research or base your work on other people’s findings. In the latter case, you should place the focus on the problem and do not allow the word limitations to dictate the number of paragraphs in your work.
If you come to the conclusion part of your abstract, remember to summarize previous statements and present results. The most frequently occurring mistake while writing a dissertation abstract is the inability to present personal findings. To outline the primary issue of the thesis, you shouldn’t concentrate on the preparation work alone. Rather than telling your readers what you did, emphasize the importance of the discovery. You may use other people’s research methods, just make sure you need them to support your cause. The last half of your summary should be dedicated to interpretation entirely.