Writing Your Abstract

As one of the introductory writing assignments as you begin your research process, you should find a good article from the newspaper relevant to your journal article topic or research project. Following the guidelines in Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, write a one paragraph abstract of the article. An abstract is a short summary capturing the essence of the article, written in a dispassionate, objective tone. Do not just copy an abstract that you find online. Ideally, you should be able to generate an original one paragraph summary, as you will have to write an abstract of your own work when you reach the final project stage.

This exercise will give you practice in

• focusing on the main ideas of a source
  
  
• summarizing without repeating the exact words of the original
  
  
• using an objective tone
  
  
• analyzing your source to identify themes and informing paradigms