American Psychological Association (APA) Style Workshop: Abstract

Abstract

Sometimes you do not need to include an abstract in a paper; always check your assignment guidelines to make sure that you need to include one. In general, if you are submiting a manuscript for publication, or preparing a more formal report, you will need to include an abstract.

The abstract is a summary of your paper and is generally the first thing your reader will read after the title. It allows readers to get an idea of what you say in your paper, so they can decide if they want to read the entire paper. Therefore, this is a very important section because you want people to actually read what you spent so much time writing.

The abstract should contain a complete but concise summary of your paper and should not contain more than 120 words. You should not repeat your title in the abstract because this is redundant and takes up precious space.

For a literature review, the main things you should include in your abstract are the problem under investigation (the purpose of the paper) and your conclusions about the problem based on your review of the literature.

For an experimental report, the main things you should include in your abstract are the problem under investigation (the purpose of the paper), the participants or subjects (number, type, age, sex), the method used, the main findings, and the implications of these findings.

See the APA sample experimental report for an example of an abstract.