How to Write an Abstract

 

An article which consists of whole body of the topic also includes abstract. Abstract is written immediately after introduction of the topic. 

Abstract is very important if you are going to present a paper, because every one first analyse your abstract and if they select it then only your article or paper  would be selected.  Though abstract is the short summary of the paper or article (full article would be of 4000-7000 words while abstract would be its short summary in 400-500 words), but it should not have the definition and description of the topic, or it should not have descriptions of whatever you have explained or mentioned in the full article or paper. But it should explain briefly about what is inside your article, how it is different from other paper and why it should be selected.

Writing an abstract is not an easy task. It is complicated and difficult, Because it is very difficult to summarise 5000 words in 100-500 words. It is easy to explain one simple sentence into 1000 sentences but it is very difficult to generalised 5000 words into 500 words. Many people confuse abstract with introduction and description of the topic. Let me tell you, you can’t describe the topic in such restricted limit of words and also the people who are going to read the abstract already know about the basic definition that you are going to put in an abstract. So it is better to explain what was your objective, what is inside the paper and why it is different.  I know I’m making it a bit complicated. I will give you the best tips to prepare an abstract along with an example of abstract which has been selected in an International conference to be held at GNLU, Gandhinagar.

For writing an abstract you should follow 4 question method and be very stick to these 4 questions. If you follow them then assume that 99% the ball is in your court and  no one can reject your abstract. These are the 4 questions.

1].What was your objective for writing on that topic?  - Explain briefly why did you chose the topic and identify the issues related.

2].What Method or technique have you used in the paper/article?- Explain the method that you followed for the research on the topic. Ex- If you have interviewed someone or conducted a survey then it should be mentioned here.

3].What did you find? – The findings and analysing that you have found after following the method mentioned in question number 2. Briefly explain it but make sure it won’t exceed the word limit

4].Conclusion/ or what do you think should happen- This will include the conclusion. You can end conclusion by raising some questions too. Based on your findings in question number 3, write your opinion how that condition should be improved and what can be done to improve it or what is the conclusion. This would be the end of the abstract.

All questions should be answered within the word limit. One more thing is that abstract is generally prepared even before the actual paper or article is prepared, so it must be prepared accordingly.

Example of an abstract on sexual harassment post vishakha judgement.

Supreme court(SC) for the  first time, in the year 1997, described sexual harassment of a female at workplace as a violation of Human rights in the case of Vishakha and others vs.state of Rajasthan and laid down certain guidelines regarding the matter and

Declared it a law under Article 141 of the constitution. Paper has been written to show the actual and present scenario of woman at workplace, after SC laid down certain guidelines regarding sexual harassment of Woman at workplace, in absence of any specific national legislation regarding the matter, in vishakha case. Paper depicts the stated breach of these guidelines in absence of specific national law by various institutions, organisations or any other workplace. It is required to spread awareness among the masses about the issue. This paper also deals with how a strict regulation can help in woman empowerment at work place and how it can help in reducing the woman suicidal rate. A strict regulation and check on the matter can help in increasing the number of woman in working sector. Also the role of National  commission of woman(NCW) is described, which is working on the bill “Protection of women against sexual harassment at workplace” .

We have interviewed 2-3 big organisations about how they have implemented the vishakha guideline for providing safety and security to woman at workplace. Also we have interviewed few working females to know in their opinion what should be done  for providing safe environment to female workers and how law should be enacted in this matter. What we found is that many Government organisations are not even following these guidelines and private sector is yet to implement them. Many research studies also suggest that the implementation rate of these guidelines are very low. It is prevalen even in Big companies where victims are highly educated. There is not even any guidelines for unorganised sector. 

So strict and regulating law should be implemented for the safety of woman at work place and unorganised work sector should be inculcated under it’s ambit.