Abstracting Research
Abstracting is a technique used in research to help you assimilate large volumes
of research. Sometimes the horizon of abstract use is the individual research
project. But more profoundly, abstracts may be something that you keep to allow
you to access important concepts over time. By the way, abstracts will also be
very helpful to you in preparing for comprehensive examinations in your graduate
work. The purpose of this assignment is for you to become familiar with the skill.
Do the project in the following steps:
1. Select 20 articles using one of the following
methods:
- Beginning with your bibliography cards, and adding new sources from the
notes to those articles, track down the most important 20 sources on your
topic.
2. Abstract the articles.
Write an abstract for each of the articles selected. We want you to master
the art of abstracting and time has shown that the following conventions produce
the most useful abstracts:
- Each abstract should be on a separate page
- Write in paragraph style rather than just listing information.
- At the top of the page, provide the proper citation for the article (in
APA or MLA format).
- In one or two paragraphs, summarize the content of the article. Include
the following:
- Provide a summary statement for the purpose of the article
- If appropriate in your topic area, list the hypotheses being tested. If
not, identify the thesis of the article.
- Identify the key concepts informing the work and how those concepts are
defined.
- Describe how the researcher went about his/her work.
- Explain the findings of the article.
- Explain the significance of the findings.
- DO NOT copy or simply reword the abstract at the top of the journal article.
These abstracts are usually insufficient summaries compared to the information
required above.
Grading: 20 percent of your semester grade
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