Some of the best information to include when writing a research paper doesn't come from books, magazine articles, or informational websites—it comes from dissertations. However, reading an entire dissertation is often a daunting task. Part of a larger set, a handout on abstracts breaks down how to use the summary statements that begin many academic papers to determine whether the abstract contains information related to a given topic. After analyzing examples, writers learn how to craft abstracts of their own.

Concepts

research writing, library resources

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Provide a sample research topic, share two abstracts from dissertations, and have scholars select which best applies to the topic
• Use a previous research paper as the basis for practicing writing abstracts

Classroom Considerations

• Requires prior understanding of how to search for sources such as dissertations

Pros

• Contains hyperlinks to additional resources on how to write abstracts
• Offers specific examples of different types of abstracts, including informative, descriptive, science, and humanities

Cons

• Features large paragraphs of text with heavy information

Common Core

W.9-10.7 W.9-10.8 W.11-12.7 W.11-12.8