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How to Write Research Abstracts

Description of what a research abstract is, how to conduct one, and examples.

Informative Abstract

  • Informational and Direct
  • Provides the base contents of the article
  • Does not contain every detail, but enough information for other researchers to be able to decide if they want to use the article for their research.
  • This is the more common type of abstract and is used in both published articles and class assignments.

Descriptive Abstract

  • Brings awareness to an article
  • A non-judgemental summary of an article written by someone other than the author
  • Indicates the type of information found in the article, but does not give the results or conclusions of the research