The Writing Jobs

To create an abstract, consider these steps. Once you've finished writing, stop what you are doing, sit back and think about the whole document.

What is its main subject?

What is its main conclusion?

What is its primary purpose?

What would you expect the reader to do with this document?

Collect all this together in your mind and write a sentence - that is your topic sentence. ou need to write one sentence that covers the entire document, regardless of whether the document is a one-page letter or a thousand-page manual.

For inspiration - Look at the recommendations, conclusions, summaries, and results sections of the completed document. If you're abstracting a manual, look at the tutorial. These sections often reflect the essence of the document. You can overlook the introduction section, as this usually only sets the stage.

Avoid the document title - This may or may not help you write the topic sentence. Chances are the document title will be too vague. Parts of the title might serve as modifiers in your topic sentence, but you'll probably need to go beyond the title.

Be specific - Make the topic sentence say something very specific.

Avoid writing "This report describes... [document title]."

Instead write something like "The results of this... [subject]... study show that... [result]."

Get the supporting sentences to fill in details

After you've got your topic sentence, write some supporting sentences. Make each of these sentences supply specific details about the ideas in the topic sentence. Think of the evidence that supports the topic sentence. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? and how much? Offer statistics, results, conclusions, or recommendations that back up what you said in the topic sentence.

Limit yourself to two or three major supporting ideas. You might include some of the less important evidence as subordinate clauses and modifiers.

Make the Transition hold it together

Arrange the supporting sentences in a logical sequence after the topic sentence. Add whatever transition is needed to connect the supporting sentences to the topic sentence and to connect ideas within the sentences to each other. Rewrite the sentences, if necessary, to improve the connections.

Your Result

You now have an abstract that is a digest of the material and will probably be of some use to the reader. This technique works for documents of any length from a couple of pages to multi-volumes. It also works for letters, reports, articles, manuals, books, speeches, scripts, and just about anything else you have to write.

Some Useful Tricks

Write the abstract only when the document is finished. Abstracts written before the document is completed are really just previews and often need to be amended later on.

If you are forced to write an abstract before the document is completed, think about its purpose and then write a topic sentence. Keep in mind that you'll need to rewrite the abstract when the document is finished because it will no longer accurately reflect the contents of the document. Before starting the abstract, make a random list of thoughts about the document. Group related items together and then prioritize the list putting the most important group first. The first few groups are probably the core for your topic sentence. The rest will lead to supporting sentences.

If you can't create a topic sentence, write the supporting sentences first. The topic sentence may then become more obvious. When writing for an audience, remember that they may not necessarily up to speed in your subject area. This is important because you never know who will read your abstract.

Choose acronyms, abbreviations, and technical terms carefully as they may confuse readers.

Define the scope of the project in the abstract, i.e. what is in and what is out of scope. Reread your abstract after several days have passed. Remove all superfluous information. These tips should ensure that your readers get off to a good start when they start your document.

Make sure to read more of Ivan's most popular articles: http://ivanwalsh.blogspot.com/