Conference Abstracts
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Writing
Conference Paper Abstracts An abstract is a
concise, self-contained and powerful statement describing a larger work to
follow. Completeness, clear and succinct presentation, and evidence of energy
to demonstrate how the paper will hook the audience are all important
features. Bear in mind that the
typically conference paper is only 15 to 18 minutes in length including time
for a few questions. Any given paper may be one of three, four or five,
presented in a block. Even the paper must be focused
on the highlights, not a full report of all your work in detail.
Abstract and paper both need to be clear and high interest. The
abstract must further be reduced to the essence what you’ll
present. Writing an effective abstract takes thought and
practice. Some principles to consider are: 1) Be sure you
have something to say! You need a strong idea that adds to existing
knowledge or demonstrates its application well. You also need to know
your idea builds on prior work and will be of interest to the audience at the
conference. If your paper is
empirical (qualitative or quantitative but drawing on newly collected data)
be sure the data is all collected and fully analyzed. It is generally
not OK to submit materials that are in process because you can
not say what the yield is and therefore can not say how your work adds
to knowledge. It is OK to submit pilot data and analysis – but it must be completed. (Pilot as
in partial or preliminary.) 2) Use a
clear, succinct title. A catchy title is great, but only so
long as it gets across what you are presenting. Both the reviewers and
the potential audience need to understand what you are presenting. Why
the Dinosaurs Died may be a great quote from a participant in your study
of children’s knowledge of HIV, but it is also an inside joke not everyone
will get (and you have to explain it in the limited word count you have
available.) Stick to word limits. Use colons to join
phrases without extra words. Drop articles like and and the as necessary. Some telegraphing is OK so long as each
sentence makes sense on its own. 3) Follow the
recommended format even if you must adapt it a bit. Research
conferences sometimes offer a medical or positivist format as a model:
Purpose, methods, results, implications. Put the information you feel
is important in one category or another to get your ideas across: Purpose
can include some literature review or a rationale for using an unusual
method. Methods might also be a location for a rationale or
caveats. Results can be brief and summary or lengthy. Implications
should reiterate why the paper is important. Be sure the opening
paragraph includes information on the importance of the paper. Some authors add
background as an initial category and discus the importance of the paper in
it. This section later ties into implications for closure or synthesis
in the abstract as a whole. You may want to include
a link to the overall conference theme in your proposal. However but
bear in mind the many peer reviewers may not even know what it is! 4) Be sure
your submission covers all the dimensions on which it will
be evaluated. Find the criteria for evaluation. If
they include originality, be sure to use this word and say what is original
about the paper. If relevance to social work practice is a criterion,
use this phrase and make the relevance plain. Many papers omit
information on evaluation methods and so get rated low and are not
accepted. Covering all the evaluative criteria is a simple formula that
serves to guide the peer reviewers through why your paper should
be accepted. Sadly it does not insure
acceptance. 5) Use
powerful language. Use the active voice. Use present
tense or past tense; not future tense. Future
tense makes it appear that the work is not yet completed. Active verbs
show the reader what you will present. Be clear. Make sure
key terms appear in the abstract, using the same level of language you will
use in the paper. Adjectives and adverbs should be
used minimally. Consider deleting them to reduce the total
number of words. If necessary, put them back in your actual paper. 6) Include
keywords on your topic where possible. These words or phrases show
knowledgeable reviewers/readers that you have a sense of the general area and
help them focus in on your topic specifically. 7) Stick to
word limits – but use all the available words. I am amazed at
submissions that seem vague but use only 250 words of a 500
word limit. In Word, drag to highlight a paragraph, and then use
the Tools, Word Count features to
count your words. 8) Stick to
the limits on references – and cite them very sparingly in the abstract text.
If references are treated as words in the
abstract text, use very few of them. It is wise to demonstrate
familiarity with the relevant literature, but this may require very few
references. Try to use references as an add on
to show your familiarity with the literature while not taking words from your
abstract word count. If there is a separate reference section for
your submission, use as many references or words in references as is
allowed. Note that many abstracts use no in text citations. 9) Use a
conventional font like Times New Roman, 12 pitch in
size. Bear in mind that electronic submissions may strip any
fancy formatting you use, making it useless effort (even the correct APA
formatting on reference lists). You may want to use the
Save As feature of your word
processor to format your abstract in rich text file format. Rich text
files (filename.rtf) strip fancy formatting but leave the core text. 10) Do not
define terms or include information not apparent in the paper. Do not
be too clever. Tables or charts are usually not allowed in abstracts but are great in the
presentation! Always include a
reference list in your actually presentation - even if you handout PowerPoint
slides – this is scholarship (and your reputation). to Social Work Resources Home Page text copyright by J. Drisko 2/2/08, updated 9/28/12 |