In a scientific work or paper, there is
a page called an abstract. This abstract contains a brief description of the
contents of the scientific work. A person who does not need to read a full
volume of scientific or written works to see the problem, purpose, method, and
results of scientific research or written work but simply reads only one page
of the page. One abstract page represents the content of a scientific work or
written work in total. Then what components are contained in the abstract?
Abstract is an overview or essence of an
essay. Apart from that, an abstract can also be said to be a summary of an
essay. The following are the components contained in the abstract of scientific
papers or written works based on the latest information of my scientific papers
or known papers. It could be that the following abstract rules differ from one
place to another or differ between scientific or written works and theses.
The components that are in the abstract
of scientific papers or papers
1. The first line contains: Last Name, First Name,
title of research or scientific work or writing
2.
The next line contains: Keywords that consist of several words,
3.
The next line consists of four paragraphs:
•
The first paragraph contains the background to the problem
• The second paragraph contains a brief description
of the problem, purpose, and usefulness of the research.
• Paragraphs containing research consisting of:
research approach, type of research, data techniques, and data analysis
techniques used.
•
The fourth paragraph contains the research results and conclusions.
That is what components are contained in
an abstract of a scientific paper or written work. The maximum length of an
abstract of a scientific paper or written work is one page.
Abstract writing patterns or styles can
generally be divided into two structured and unstructured or traditional forms.
Structured abstracts are different from traditional abstracts. A structured
abstract consists of five stages, namely the background, objectives, methods,
results and conclusions. Meanwhile, in traditional abstracts, according to
Swales and Feak (2009), the stages are not complete, but they are given
subtitles at each stage while structured abstracts are not.
According to Swales and Feak (2009),
structured abstracts with stages without subtitles were introduced since 1987
in the fields of medical and health sciences and since then have been used in
other fields of science. In 2007, according to Swales and Feak, ERIC (the
Educational Research Information Center) a very large American bibliographic
database said they would only use structured abstracts without including
subtitles at each stage. Below is presented an example of a structured
abstract, but subtitled written by James Harley, a British professor of
psychology who wrote a literature review article entitled 'Current Findings
from Research on Structured Abstract' and published in 2004. Example quoted
below in Swales and Feak (2009: 26).
Background: Structred abstracts were introduced
into medical research journals in the
mid-1980s. Since then they have been widely
used in this and other contexts.
Aim: The aim of this paper is to summarize
the man fidnings from research on
structured abstracts and to discuss the limitations of some aspects
of this research.
Method: A narrative literature review of all
the relevant papers known
to the author was conducted.
Results: Structured abstracts are typically
longer than traditional ones, but
they are also judges to be more informative
and accessable. Authors and readers also judge
them to be more useful than traditional abstracts. However, not all studies used ‘real-life’ published examples from different authors in their work, and more work needs
to be done in some cases.
Conclusions: The findings generally support the
notion that structured abstracts can be ptofitably introduced into
research journals. Some arguments for this, however, have some support than others.
Unstructured or traditional abstracts do
not have complete stages or moves. The author can only present the objectives,
methods, and research results or less. Below is presented an example of an
unstructured or traditional abstract taken from Swales and Feak (2009: 3).
Many scholars claim that democracy improves the welfare of the poor. This article uses data on
infant and child mortality to
challenge this claim. Cross-national studies
tend to exclude from their samples
non-democratic states that have performed well; this leads to
the mistaken inefernce that non-democracies have worse records
than democracies. Once these
and other flaws are corrected, democracy
has little or no effect on infant and chile mortality rates. Democracies spend more money on education and health than non-democracies,
but these benefits seem to accrue to
middle-and upper-income groups.
Although it is rare to find, structured
abstracts that include subtitles at each stage of the abstract can still be
found in certain fields of science today. Below is presented an abstract sample
taken from the journal Aphasiology published by Psychology Press, a member of
the Taylor and Francis Group publishing house.
Background: The progressive interest in social activities within
the life and clinical efforts of persons with aphasia
makes it necessary
to focus more clinical
attention on conversation as a site for therapy and as a goal for intervention. A
number of innovative approaches have been designed,
but most fall sort when authentic conversation is considered. Aims: This article
provides one alternative
to thoseintervention approaches. It aims toimprove
the interactional abilities
of persons with aphasia by addressing authentic conversation. The intervention approach, Facilitating Authentic Conversation (FAC), is
described in detail byproviding its theoretical basis,
the practical guide lines for itsorganisation and design, and its implementation procedure.
Additionally, a case studyis provided
that addresses two questions: does this approach
reduce targeted problematic behaviours in
conversations and does this approach increase the utilisation ofeffective strategies
during conversations. Methods & Procedures: Constructivism and conversation
analysis are used to design a therapy approach that includes an analysis procedure and various strategies
to achieve a therapeutic effect during
authentic conversation. Using qualitative and
quantitative techniques derived from conversation analysis, evidence for
change within conv er sations is pr ovided.
Outcomes & Results: Evidence suggests that this intervention
approach assisted inchanging the conversational behaviours of the person with
aphasia (PWA) who served as the case
study. Two conversational strategies that were highlighted via several specific the rapeutic techniques were found to have reduced specific problematic
conversational behaviours 19 months post- onset.
Conclusions: The article describes an innovative therapeutic approach that employs
authentic conversation as the primary vehicle for intervention. The case study provided with this description provides
evidence that identified problematic
behaviours can be modified through constructivist principles that expose the PWA to beneficial strategies
used to over come
conversational barriers due to aphasia.(Damico dkk.., 2015)
As seen in the example above, the stages
or moves in the abstract are characterized by a subheading: background, aims,
methods & procedures, outcomes & results, and conclusions. Abstract
writing style like this is a combination of traditional style and structured
style. Unlike the traditional abstracts which do not have complete stages, this
abstract is written in five stages, however, each section contains a subtitle.
Structured abstract writing styles with subtitles are still widely found today
in journal articles in certain fields of science, such as the journal
Aphasiology, Acta Medica Indonesiana, the Journal of the Medical Library
Association, and others. The author of the article must follow the abstract
writing style applied to the particular journal to which his writing will be
submitted.
