LANGUAGE AND LEARNING SERVICE
LEARNING GUIDE
CENTRE FOR LEARNING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Level 2, Schulz Building, North Terrace campus, The University of Adelaide SA 5005 Australia
Telephone +61 8 8303 5771 | email clpd@adelaide.edu.au | www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/
Writing an Abstract
Often when asked to write a report or article you will be required to include an abstract. This
is usually a very concise summary of what the article or report is about and is usually placed
before the body of your writing. The abstract can be read to get a quick overview: it tells the
reader what to expect in your report or article and it should be based on what you have
written. An abstract has a particular format that will be outlined in this learning guide.
Definitions
The word abstract comes from the Latin abstractum, which means a condensed form of a longer piece of writing.
There are two main types of abstract, the descriptive and the informative abstract. The type of abstract you write
depends on the discipline area and whether you are reporting on experimental research.
Descriptive abstracts
Descriptive abstracts are generally used for humanities and social science papers or psychology essays. Most
descriptive abstracts have certain key parts in common. They are:
• Background
• Purpose
• Particular interest / focus of paper
• Overview of contents (not always included)
This type of abstract is usually very short (50-100 words).
Informative abstracts
Informative abstracts are generally used for science, engineering or psychology reports. Most informative abstracts
also have key parts in common. They are:
• Background
• Aim or purpose of research
• Method used
• Findings/results
• Conclusion
Each of these parts might consist of one or two sentences. You must get the essence of what your report is about,
usually in about 200 words.
The table below summarises the main features of, as well as the differences between, the two types of abstracts:
Descriptive abstract Informative abstract
• Describes the major points of the project
to the reader.
• Includes the background, purpose and
focus of the paper or article but never the
methods, results and conclusions, if it is a
research paper.
• Is most likely used for humanities and
social science papers or psychology
essays.
• Informs the audience of all essential
points of the paper.
• Briefly summarises the background,
purpose, focus, methods, results, findings
and conclusions of the full-length paper.
• Is concise, usually 10% of the original
paper length, often just one paragraph.
• Is most likely used for sciences,
engineering or psychology reports.