Find synonyms and arrange them in pairs. Text 1: What is an abstract?

1. to construct 2. thoroughly 3. conclusions 4. abstract 5. to analyze 6. to evaluate 7. to calculate 8. to study 9. materials 10. literature 11. to obtain 12. scientific article 13. title 14. extended abstracts

a. to estimate b. results c. to create d. in detail e. procedures f. brief summary g. bibliography h. to perform analysis of i. paper j. to get k. to compute l. to investigate m. heading n. short research article

Text 1: What is an abstract?

An abstract is a brief summary of the content and purpose of an article. In some journals, the abstract is used in place of a concluding summary. The abstract allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly. It is self-contained, fully intelligible without reference to the body of the paper. Information or conclusions that do not appear in the paper are not supposed to appear in the abstract.

There are two kinds of abstracts: short and extended. A short abstract is placed immediately after the title page. The length of the short abstract should be no more than 100 to 200 words.

An extended abstract is a short research article where the project is presented in a concise way. The extended abstract must include all relevant aspects and information expected in a regular research paper without being too detailed. The length of an extended abstract may be up to 2-3 pages.

Tips for writing an abstract

Writing an abstract involves summarizing the whole manuscript and providing as much new information as possible. The best way to write an effective abstract is to start with a draft of the complete manuscript and follow these 10 steps:

1. Identify the major objectives and conclusions.

2. Identify phrases with keywords in the methods section.

3. Identify the major results from the discussion or results section.

4. Assemble the above information into a single paragraph.

5. State your hypothesis or method used in the first sentence.

6. Omit background information, literature review, and detailed description of methods.

7. Remove extra words and phrases. Be specific «20 and 40 kg/acre of nitrogen» rather than «two treatments of nitrogen», «...increased by 50%» rather than «...increased».

8. Revise the paragraph so that the abstract conveys only the essential information.

9. Never use «I» statements in an abstract. Report your information impersonally, as though it were written by someone else.

10. Give the abstract to a colleague (preferably one who is not familiar with your work) and ask him / her whether it makes sense. Do not procrastinate! It is best to write the abstract immediately after you finish your project while the ideas are still fresh in your mind.

Keep in mind the ABCs of a good abstract: accuracy, brevity, clarity. After you’ve completed your abstract, go back over the ABCs of a good abstract and ask yourself a few questions:

How accurateis my abstract? Is it consistent with the information in the original document?

How brief is my abstract? Did I substantially reduce the amount of text necessary to convey the main ideas?

How clear is my abstract? Can a non-specialized reader easily understand all the information?

Answer the following questions.

1. What is an abstract?

2. What is the purpose of the abstract?

3. What are the kinds of abstracts?

4. Where is the abstract placed within a paper?

5. What is a common length of a short abstract (extended abstract)?

6. What does an extended abstract include?

7. What does writing an abstract involve?

8. What are the ABCs of a good abstract?

Text 2: Types of abstracts

There are two types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. They have different aims, so as a consequence they have different components and styles.

Descriptive abstracts

If you are writing an abstract for a less-structured document like an essay, editorial, or book, you will write a descriptive abstract. Descriptive abstracts are generally used for humanities and social science papers. Most descriptive abstracts have certain key parts in common. They are:

- Background

- Purpose

- Particular interest / focus of paper

- Overview of contents (not always included)

Informative abstracts

If you are writing an abstract for a strictly-structured document like an experiment, investigation, or survey, you will write an informative abstract. Most informative abstracts also have key parts in common. Each of these parts might consist of 1-2 sentences. The parts include:

- Background

- Aim or purpose of research

- Method used

- Findings / results

- Conclusion

The table below summarizes the main differences between the two types of abstracts discussed above. In both types of abstracts, your lecturer / tutor may require other specific information to be included. Always follow your lecturer / tutor’s instructions.

Descriptive abstract	Informative abstract
- Describes the major points of the project to the reader. - Includes the background, purpose and focus of a paper or article, but never methods, results and conclusions, if it is a research paper. - Is most likely used for humanities and social science papers or essays. - Is usually very short – 150 words or less.	- Informs the audience of all essential points of a paper. - Briefly summarizes the background, purpose, focus, methods, results, findings and conclusions of the full-length paper. - Is used for technical and scientific papers. - Is rarely more than 10% of the length of the entire work (250 and more words).

Here are examples of a descriptive and informative abstract of this report:

Descriptive abstract:

The two most common abstract types – descriptive and informative – are described and examples of each are provided.

Informative abstract:

Abstracts present the essential elements of a longer work in a short and powerful statement. The purpose of an abstract is to provide prospective readers the opportunity to judge the relevance of the longer work to their projects. Abstracts also include the key terms found in the longer work and the purpose and methods of the research. Authors abstract various longer works, including book proposals, dissertations, and online journal articles. There are two main types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. A descriptive abstract briefly describes the longer work, while an informative abstract presents all the main arguments and important results.

Notice how the abstract clearly summarizes information from each of the report’s major sections:

Introduction	Construction sites are major contributors to nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. However, a lack of personnel to enforce erosion control regulations and limited voluntary compliance means that few developers apply effective erosion control.
Research problem	New approaches are needed to increase erosion control on construction sites if this source of NPS pollution is to be significantly reduced.
Body	This study tests whether an economic advantage exists for developers who use vegetative cover for erosion control, independent of advantages gained in addressing environmental or regulatory concerns. Improving residential lot appearance from muddy brown to green grass may increase the appeal of the lot to buyers.
Results	A market survey shows that homebuyers and realtors perceive vegetated lots to be worth more than unvegetated lots, and this increased value exceeds the cost of seeding.
Conclusion	Thus, developers can now be encouraged to invest in vegetative cover because of the potentially high return on the investment.

3) Explain the differences between descriptive and informative abstracts. The points to be covered:

1. The purpose of abstracts. 2. The key parts of each type of abstracts. 3. The length of abstracts.

Read and translate the following abstracts paying attention to the underlined word combinations. Determine the type of each abstract (descriptive, informative). Identify the key parts of the abstracts.

Text 3: Sample abstracts

1. Within the EU Austria is in the vanguard of the development of organic farming, with more than 10% of farms and land under organic management. Austria therefore provides an excellent example of what happens when organic production becomes an accepted mainstream mode of farming.

This raises key questions about how agricultural policy actors and market actors react to this growth. Does the increasing share of organic production substantially change the future direction of agricultural and policy development? Or is the growth of the organic sector mainly instrumental, allowing policy and market actors to communicate a positive image while at the same time ramifying conventional approaches?

2. Field experiments were conducted at the research field of the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State, Nigeria. The experiments were designed as 5 x 4 factorial in Randomized Complete Block and laid out in split-plots arrangement, replicated three times. Results showed that the application of different combinations of organic manure and inorganic fertilizer resulted in significantly better growth and grain yield (2.51 t/ha for 1 t/ha + 20 kg N/ha urea and 2.26 t/ha for 0.5 t/ha + 40 kg N/ha urea), compared to the none application of any form of soil amendment (control) (1.38 t/ha), with the parameters also varying significantly among the soil amendments. The use of combined organic manure and inorganic fertilizer, more importantly, 1 t/ha PM + 20 kg N/ha and the cultivation of the NERICA 1 rice variety, are hereby recommended for the farmers in the experimental area.

3. Potato is a high input intensive and a shallow rooted crop which requires an efficient cropping management to ensure adequate nutrient uptake to attain optimum crop growth. The experiment was conducted with four planting dates (22^nd October, 1^st, 11^th and 21^st November) and four fertilizer rates viz. 75, 100, 125 and 150% of recommended fertilizer dose in the region for optimum productivity in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data was recorded on plant height, leaf, and stem weight, and leaf area index and NPK uptake. Planting date had significant effect on all vegetative characteristics and recorded the highest values at 1^st November planting date and lowest in 21^st November planting date. Maximum uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium by leaves, stems and tubers was also observed at 1^st November planting date. Plant height, leaf area index, leaf and stem weight increased with increase in fertilizer dose. Thus, the results of this study suggested that optimum planting time (1^st November) is very critical for maximum nutrient uptake of the applied fertilizer dose to the potato crop under semi-arid conditions.