I. Title and Citation of Source. The title of your abstract should simply be Abstract, centered at the top of the page. Double space after the title and give the citation.

A. Houp, Kenneth W., Thomas E. Pearsall and Elizabeth Tebeaux. 1995. "Design Elements of Reports." Reporting Technical Information. 8th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon. 235-84.

B. Smith, Terry C. 1976." What Bugs Engineers Most About Report Writing." Technical Communication 23: 2-6.

II. Purpose and Scope. The abstract (or summary) is a tight condensation of a lengthy article or report; it should "boil down" the material in the original to the bare facts or essential ideas. The abstract should include a statement of thesis (generally as the topic sentence of the abstract), and a summary of the essential facts, ideas, and conclusions of the original. The following points should help you to prepare and write an abstract:

A. Read the selection to determine its basic points.

B. Read the selection a second time to pick out its thesis and main facts or ideas. Indicate

these major points by using Roman numerals in the margin, or by making an outline on paper.

C. Strike out or ignore introductory, summary, or illustrative paragraphs.

D. Write a summary of the main points you have outlined, beginning with a thesis statement and ending with the major conclusions of the article or report.

E. Compare your summary with the original to be sure that you have an accurate condensation of the original.

F. Go back over what you have written and excise any nonessential words or phrases.

G. Make sure your abstract is written in complete sentences and organized paragraphs.

III. Length. Many journals require their writers to keep their abstracts under 200 words; however, for longer articles more substantive, informative abstracts are needed. Let the length and substance of the article be your guide.

IV. Style (Based on the MLA Guidelines for Abstracting Scholarly Articles).

A. Brevity. Without being obscure or cryptic, an abstract should be as compact and concise as possible. A good abstract is specific and includes only directly significant details. Information already apparent from the title is not repeated; peripheral comments, generalizations, background information, and, ordinarily, references to previous work are omitted.

B. Paragraphing. Abstracts should not be written as series of disjointed sentences, each one referring to a separate topic, nor should they be verbatim topic sentences from paragraphs in the article or report.

C. Sentences. Vary sentence length to avoid the unpleasant effect of a series of short, choppy sentences. Be terse, but not telegraphic, and do not omit verbs, conjunctions, or other form words. Also avoid the overlong, complex sentence in which clauses and phrases are piled up in an awkward attempt to include as much as possible in one sentence.

D. Language and Quotations. Because the point of view of the abstract is that of the author of the article or report, such expressions as "in this article, I...," "the author concludes," "it is believed by Johnson," or "this report states that" are redundant. The language of the abstract should echo the style of the article or report. Key words from the document can be incorporated in the abstract, but direct quotations should be avoided. Unusual or difficult terms should be defined.

E. Verbs, Voice, and Tense. Use active verbs as much as possible because they allow for the most direct expressions. Similarly, the active voice best summarizes the content of a document, without appearing to describe the document itself. As a general rule, tense and voice should not shift within an abstract.