“I've been doing
a lot of abstract painting lately, extremely abstract. No brush, no paint, no
canvas, I just think about it.” -- Stephen Wright (American Actor and
Writer, b.1955)
A good abstract can help you advertise your research talent beyond the
community of experts that share your interest.
At the end of this post is a before and after abstract writing
exercise. You might also want to check
out a couple of the following sources for helpful abstract writing hints.
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University of North Carolina College of
Arts & Sciences
How to write abstracts
Source: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/abstracts/
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Philip Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University
"Now that the use of on-line publication databases is prevalent, writing a
really good abstract
has become even more important than it was a decade ago. Abstracts have always served the
function of "selling" your work. But now, instead of merely
convincing the reader to keep reading the rest of the attached paper, an abstract
must convince the reader" to purchase a copy of the article
"Writing an efficient abstract is hard work, but will repay you with
increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your
publications"
Source: http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html
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Emerald Insight
How to... write an abstract
Source: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/write/abstracts.htm?part=1#2
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ABSTRACT WRITING EXERCISE
Here is an interesting article I found on the Web. The original abstract, reproduced below, is
OK, but not great.
Microchim Acta (2012) 179:123–130
Synthesis of
magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer particles for selective adsorption and
separation of dibenzothiophene
H. Li :W. Xu (*) : X. Ma : B. Jiang : L. Liu :W. Huang
Department of Environment, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, People’s
Republic of China
xwz09@ujs.edu.cn
N. Wang
Entry-exit inspection quarantine bureau, Zhenjiang 212000, People’s Republic of
China
D. Niu :W. Yang : Z. Zhou
Department of Material science & engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang
212013, People’s Republic of China
Free Full Text Source: http://www.springerlink.com/content/m35318n3l0627774/
Original
abstract:
We report on the synthesis of
magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (m-MIPs) for the selective adsorption
and separation of dibenzothiophene (DBT) from oil solution. The m-MIPs were
characterized by Fourier transform infrared analysis, transmission electron
microscopy, surface area and porosity analysis, and vibrating sample
magnetometry. Batch mode adsorption studies were carried out to investigate the
adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherms and selective recognition. The adsorption
kinetics were modeled with the pseudofirst- order and pseudo-second-order
kinetics, and the adsorption isotherms were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich
models. The m-MIPs can selectively recognize DBT over similar compounds. Static
adsorption experiments showed that the m-MIPs display excellent recognition
capacity, selective affinity for DBT, and superparamagnetism in presence of an
external magnetic field.
I think I can do better.
New and, in my
opinion, improved, abstract
Organic sulfur compounds in
fuel oil cause air pollution and acid rain, resulting in serious diseases of
human respiratory system. In response, governments
around the world have restricted the amount of acceptable sulfur content
present in fuels to very low limits. The
conventional method of sulfur removal is hydrodesulfurization. This process, however, is unable to remove
refractory sulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophene (DBT) and its derivatives
to the ultra low levels required by new environmental regulations. Molecular imprinting provides a new choice
for adsorption and separation of dibenzothiophene. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) possess the
advantages of easy and cheap preparation, low cost, mechanical and chemical
stability. Recent attempts have been
made to coat the thin MIP shells at the nanoparticle level, providing easy
template removal, high adsorption capacity, low mass transportation resistance,
and fast adsorption kinetics. The
mag-MIPs are prepared by encapsulating inorganic magnetic particles with
organic polymer, combining the advantages of high recognition properties of MIP
and the handling convenience of magnetic separation. Magnetic separation can be performed directly
in crude samples. Consequently, prepared
mag-MIPs are promising multifunctional candidates for the adsorption and
separation process. We have developed a
relatively rapid and convenient method to adsorb and separate dibenzothiophene
in oil solution. Fe3O4
nanoparticles were employed as magnetic materials and synthesized by the
coprecipitation method. Silica particles
with stable chemical properties, firm physical structure and high mechanical
strength were selected as protective molecules to effectively stabilize the
iron oxides. Fe3O4
nanoparticles were embedded in the silica particles, and then coated with a
thin MIPs film, which was obtained using dibenzothiophene as a template, 4-
vinylpyridine as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a
cross-linker, and azodiisobutyronitrile as the initiator. The resultant
magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were systematically characterized by
Fourier transform infrared analysis, transmission electron microscopy, surface
area and porosity analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer. In addition, adsorption properties such as
equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics and selective recognition were
demonstrated by batch mode adsorption experiments.
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The second version includes sufficient technical information to let an expert
know whether or not he or she wants to read the whole article. At the same time, it has enough non-technical
information to inform both the interested layman and the researcher whose
expertise lies elsewhere.
Suppose the technology described in the paper were to be featured on a program
like National Public Radio’s Science Friday (www.npr.org)
program, for example. Which of the above
abstracts do you think would be more helpful to the NPR staffer assigned to
research the topic?
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