Abstract (Synopsis or Summary)

An abstract (also called synopsis, summary or executive summary), which is different from an introduction, is an informative summary of the entry or essay, in which you include one or two sentences for every main section of your entry or essay. For example, you can include:
• the context of the research
• the purpose of the entry or essay (as outlined in the Introduction) and scope.
• the major findings (you may need several sentences here)
• the conclusions
• the main recommendations

An effective abstract:
• uses one or more well-developed paragraphs, which are unified, coherent, concise, and able to stand alone
• uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure in which the parts of the report are discussed in order: purpose, findings, conclusions, recommendations
• follows strictly the chronology of the entry or essay
• provides logical connections between material included
• adds no new information but simply summarizes the entry or essay
• is intelligible to a wide audience

Write the abstract after you have written the report. Literature citations should not be included in the Abstract.