Some tips for writing abstract---learned from the academic writing course (Renew)

1. Abstracts are just like shop signs.
A good abstract can grab people's attention to continue reading the study. Therefore, in order to let people get to know our study, we need to have a good "marketing tool"-abstract.

2. Use PLAIN language in the abstract.
Ex: and / or / but instead of Moreover / Therefore

3. Use one third or less PASSIVE voice in the abstract, for it makes readers read slowly.

4. An abstract includes the most important key results:
(1) Why do we care?
(2) What is the problem?
(3) What did you do?
(4) What did you find out?
(5) What does it mean?
- What are the implication / application / recommedation ?

5. The first sentence: "topic" of the study; the first word: simple, active, plain, strong.
Ex: Smoking is a risk factor for many diseases....
In this case, we don't add "In recent years," in front of the sentence.

6. Use adequate addjective to decribe the certainty.
Ex: It____be true.
"may" and "might" (near certainty) are more frequently used than "can" and "could" (10-20% certainty).