If you want to build your career in academia, one of the first steps is to write an abstract to participate in a scientific congress. This material must contain an objective text and respect the rules of the event in which it was submitted. In this article we will tell you about Conference abstract.
In academic life, the secret to writing good abstracts is objectivity. The researcher needs to use short and concise sentences to explain the paths of his study and generate interest. Unnecessary or complicated words should be excluded from the text.
What is a conference abstract?
The abstract written for the conference works as a kind of “trailer” for your research. In other words, it is a form of advertisement for the scientific study, which has already been published or will be published soon.
A good abstract for a scientific conference is one that manages to make people curious about the research, that is, willing to read the complete study in its entirety.
The congress abstract has a similar structure to the abstract of a scientific article . The text must present an introduction, objective, methods, results and conclusions.
summary structure
Abstracts for congresses can be structured in different ways, according to the rules established by the scientific committee. In general, the most important elements are:
- Introduction/objectives: the general theme is presented, the main objectives and the doubt that the work intends to solve.
- Methods: involves study design, field of work, inclusion and exclusion criteria and applied intervention. Every methodology must be aligned with the objective of the research.
- Results: gathers information that proves the validity of the presented results, such as a quick description of the studied population. There is no space to compare with other works in the scientific literature.
- Conclusion: there is no room for discussion of the results. In one or two sentences, it is necessary to pass the answer to the previously addressed objective.
Learn how to write an abstract to attend a conference
Via Carreira has listed some advice for you to write a summary capable of attracting the attention of evaluators.
Pay attention to the theme of the congress
Every congress is organized around a theme. Check if your scientific research is aligned with the theme before submitting the abstract to the event. Many works are rejected because they do not align with the theme.
Write a clear and direct title
Write in the title of the abstract what was the main contribution of your research to the area of knowledge. This strategy piques readers’ interest and demonstrates that you’re objective.
The title should be clear and concise, without abbreviations, formulas or jargon. Also, avoid obvious expressions such as “study”, “investigation”, “characterization”, “importance” and “identification”.
Still dealing with the title, do not forget to locate your study in time and space. This recommendation is valid mainly for international congresses.
State the purpose of the research in the first sentence
The first sentence of the abstract to participate in the congress must be the objective of the research. Therefore, write information that makes the evaluator’s eyes shine.
Massive summaries with many details do not attract the attention of peers, so they should be avoided.
Write the main points clearly
In the conference abstract, less is more, so use simple sentences in direct order (subject + verb + complement). The text can be written all in the past tense or with context in the present tense and the other items in the past tense.
A good summary fulfills the role of presenting the problem, exposing the objectives, describing the methods used, summarizing the results and presenting the main conclusions. In addition, the text must show what makes your research different from anything that has been published to date. Yes, writing congress abstracts is also an exercise in persuasion.
Cut the unnecessary words
In scientific text, certain words are considered unnecessary, such as adverbs and adjectives. Use the proofreading step to trim these terms from the summary.
Write in a single paragraph
The conference abstract is usually written in a single paragraph, 200 to 300 words. The keywords, related to the study, are added in a specific field of the submission form. In any case, check the scientific congress instructions so as not to make mistakes when submitting your research.
Finally, be sure to submit your abstract on the last day of the congress deadline. The submission process may have setbacks and raise doubts.
