Analyzing and evaluating the structure of abstracts in research papers
According to the American Psychological Association (APA) an abstract is a “brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the article” (2009, p. 25). Abstracts may permit readers to appraisal the content of a paper. Accordingly, researchers are likely to create accurate abstracts with the intention of drawing the audience attention in order to delve them into the reading of the whole text (APA, 2009). Thus, four abstracts will be analyzed and evaluated throughout this essay. Three of them belong to the medicine field and the other to the education sector. Their main similarities and differences will be considered from their structure and content perspective contrasted with APA (2009).
Research by Jorgensen, Zahl & Gotzche (2009), deals with breast cancer mortality in organized mammography whereas research by Wijeysundera, Beattie, Elliot, Austin, Hux and Laupacis (2009), involves non-invasive cardiac stress testing before non-cardiac surgery. The third article on medicine developed by Martinez
A thorough abstract analysis will be conducted attending to APA (2009) requirements, rules and style as regards abstracts’ layout and structure. APA (2009) rules for formatting abstracts state that researchers are advised to “ begin the abstract on a new page… the label abstract should appear in uppercase and lower case letters, centered at the top of the page” (p.27). Under the light of the previous rule, the papers on medicine field may not meet APA (2009) requirements as the term abstract is typed in uppercase letters placed in the left-hand corner. Moreover, none of the medicine abstracts have been typed in a separate sheet. In view of this theory, the abstract on the education field seems to respect APA (2009) standards.
It is of great importance the fact of considering the type of abstract to be analyzed. Within the four papers, the articles on medicine may mirror the characteristics of informative abstracts due to they seem to be heavy on data while the course of action undertaken by the researchers is described (Pintos, 2009). Thus, the paper on the education sector could be characterized as an unstructured abstract since it is developed through a block paragraph in which the different sections could be identified though the lack of subheadings.
Then, another important issue under our analysis is the abstract structure in the four articles. The papers on the medicine field seem to share the same bold headings which refer to the sections to be included in the body of the papers. The usage of these subheadings may meet the standards and requirements of APA (2009). The majority of the abstracts in the medicine field may probably share the same subheadings due to publishing requirements in the field. However, there are no subheadings in the education paper, the word abstract is typed in uppercase letters and centered meeting APA (2009) rules and conventions.
With reference to the number of words and sentences, it would appear that the abstracts on medicine as well as the abstract on education match APA (2009) rules as regards the number of words or the number of sentences established. The medicine paper contains eleven to thirteen sentences while the abstract on education is written in no more than one hundred and sixty words. It is of our concerned the inclusion of keywords for readers to “find works in databases and websites” (as cited in Pintos, 2009, p.33). The researchers on the education field might have chosen to offer readers a keyword list respecting APA (2009) conventions since this word is centered and italicized.
The past simple tense passive voice has been used by the researchers in the medicine field. In this respect there is a high possibility that Jorgensen et al. (2009), Wijeysundera et al., (2009), and Martinez et al. (2009), have selected the past tense passive voice to help the readers focus on the course of action undertaken by the researchers as well as on the results obtained after the research stage and on the findings. Conversely, Alemrich et al., (2005), may have preferred the usage of present simple tense active voice in their abstract. The usage of verbal tenses as well as tense mobility seems a hard issue to be considered by researchers when writing abstracts (Swales and Freak, 1998) (cited in Pintos, 2009).
Through the analysis of the four abstracts from the perspective of linguistic features, it may be stated that abstracts on the medicine field do not contain complete sentences. The impersonal passive has been used while negatives have been avoided. Digital numbers could be found in the results section of all the abstracts. Then, the abstract on education is developed through full sentences. Furthermore, digital numbers have been used by the researchers. Almerich et al., (2005) may have used jargon language to refer to the type of model used for results gathering. Based on the grounds of the information included in the four abstracts it may be conclude that they would meet APA (2009) rules and requirements, with the exception of the usage of incomplete statements and jargon language (APA, 2009).
All in all, it may be concluded that the process of abstract writing requires a prodigious knowledge on summary writing together with accurate academic writing skills. Considering the possibility of attracting readers to read the whole text, should be another central issue for researchers to be developed through the first piece of text the audience may be faced with. The analyzed abstracts seem to partially match APA (2009) rules, requirements and conventions for academic abstracts under the light of the addressed theory. The variations found in the abstracts of the papers would have been produced by the researchers in pursuance of meeting publishing requisites.
References
Almerich, G., Suárez, J. M.., Orellana, N., Belloch, C., Bo, R., & Gastaldo, I. (2005). Differences in the knowledge of the technological resources in professors starting for gender, type and center type. [Abstract] RELIEVE, v. 11, n. 2, p. 127-146. Retrieved from
http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v11n2/RELIEVEv11n2_3.htm
American Psychological Association (2009). Publication Manual (6th ed.). Washington , DC
Jørgensen, K. J., Zahl, P. H., & Gøtzsche, P. C. (2009). Breast cancer mortality in organised mammography screening in Denmark
Pintos, V. (2009) Unit 4: Research articles: Abstracts. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires,
Wijeysundera, D. N., Beattie, W. S., Elliot, R. F., Austin, P. C., Hux, J. E., & Laupacis, A.
(2009). Non-invasive cardiac stress testing before elective major non-cardiac surgery: population based cohort study [Abstract] British Medical Journal 2010; 340:b5526 doi:10.1136/bmj.b5526
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