First of all, the first thing we have to tell you is that an abstract is a very important component of your thesis. It is at the beginning of the final thesis, so it will most likely be the first substantive description of your work read by a person who is examining your work. It is essential that you see this as a good opportunity to set precise expectations. It is usually done in English. Here in this free essay we will explain the steps to write an abstract.

However, it is important to note that usually an abstract functions, with the addition of the title of the thesis, as a text that is considered to be completely independent. They can be presented in thesis exam announcements. A large number of readers who get your abstract from a bibliographic database or who have the opportunity to receive an e-mail announcing your research presentation will never be able to retrieve the full text, nor will they attend the presentation.

It is important to emphasize that the abstract should not be confused with an introduction in the sense of a preface, advanced organizer or a preamble in order to prepare the reader for the thesis to be read next. In addition to this function, it should also have the ability to replace the entire thesis when the person does not have enough time to read the entire thesis and space to have the complete text.

How to write the abstract?
Currently, the maximum size of the abstract is 150 words (this is when we are talking about a master's thesis) and 350 words (doctoral dissertation): In order to maintain visual coherence, you should limit the asbtract of your doctoral dissertation to one double-spaced page, about 180 words.

A good example might be: if your thesis has a total of five chapters (introduction, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion), there should be one or more sentences allotted to summarize each chapter you have done.

As in the thesis itself, the questions are considered fundamental to be able to organize the whole abstract, so that it can be coherent and logically structured. It is important to note that there is only space for three questions. If there are more than this number of questions in your thesis research, you will have to restructure them to reduce some to subsidiary status.

The mistake that is considered to be the most common when it comes to writing an abstract is the lack of presentation of the results. We do not mean that the main function of this is to tell the readers what you did, the purpose of this is to be able to tell them what you really discovered.

On the other hand, it is important to comment that other information is required, such as the account of your research methods, especially to be able to support the statements made about your results.

Half of the summary should be one hundred percent dedicated to summarizing and interpreting your results. The exact location of the abstract should be after the foreword and before the table of contents. It should be noted that the objective of the work must be specified in the abstract, as well as in the problem statement.

If the person is doing a bachelor's, doctoral or master's thesis, it is recommended that a report be written and evaluated by the tutor before the abstract is written. It is also important to comment on how important the writing is because it should be presented in different ways, so that it can be visualized if it is possible to understand what you want to do in the abstract of the work.

In what context is an abstract used?
The abstract is used in an academic text or in a thesis, this is to describe in a synthesized and abbreviated form the work that has been done, so that the reader can then proceed to judge its content. Believe it or not, you can get it in texts such as: essays, articles, technical reports, theses, reports, etc.

What is its main purpose?
The main objective of an abstract is to synthesize in an objective and precise way all the content, as well as to be able to organize the whole document so that the reader has the general idea of what the work is about.

It is important to note that the abstract should be written in a sustained manner, usually in the same font used in the thesis, but with the difference that there is an interlinear space. It should be written in a clear, precise and completely direct manner. It must not be ambiguous at any time.

What characterizes an abstract?
It depends on the type of publication that the person wants to make will depend on the number of words that have to be used at the time of having to make an abstract. In general, the abstract should be no less than 120 words and no more than 350.

It is important that all its elements are well arranged, it has to be presented in the following order: problem statement, purpose, theoretical framework, methodology, results or findings and conclusion.

It is important to note that abstracts can be classified into two types of styles, when synthesizing the text. Those that are called informative abstracts and are generally used in presentations at academic events are called descriptive abstracts.

Let's talk a little about informative reports. These are used for long investigations, where all the components of the study being investigated must be covered in a summarized version and where the results are included. Likewise, the length of the page must be taken into account, in addition to the fact that the information must be very precise, it must have the exact results and have a list of keywords containing words that refer to the article.

Now, if we talk about the descriptive ones, we can say that unlike the informative ones, they are used to make short documents, where the purpose, the goal and the research methods are briefly stated. In this way it is also discarded from the results section. Also, key words must be included.

Steps to write an abstract
In order to write the abstract section, the narrative process of the paper must be used. We are going to tell you what are the steps you should do:

● You must determine the length and this adjust it as much as possible to the number of words required.
● Journals, it cannot be more than 120 words.
● In the thesis, it is recommended that it should not exceed 320 words.
● For technical reports, the suggested length is between a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 350 words.
● You should take the idea from the end of the summary and be able to select which is the information that you need to influence.
● It must be written in the third person and in the past perfect tense.
● The sentences cannot be complex, they have to be simple, precise, clear and concise so that they can be understood in an easy way.
● In the problem statement, the problem must be sought to be solved, that is why words that are easy to understand must also be used.

Purpose: it is important to point out why the work is so important and what it has been done for. All the reasons should be stated there.

Theoretical framework: this is where all the concepts and theories that support the work should be described.

Methodology: in this part is where the work strategy, the method chosen and the tools used to carry out the research should be indicated.

Results or findings: in this part is where the results will be placed in a very concrete way.

Conclusion: this is where a sample of all the research is offered in a precise and concise way.

Note: it must have all the elements that are in the abstract, this is so that the reader has the possibility of judging the work in a simplified form in this version.

Summary of the research: in the summary you have to show that the reader will be able to have a very clear idea of the research of the work. In this way, the reader will be able to decide if it is interesting when he/she is reading it or if he/she prefers to finish it there.

Keywords to know how to write an abstract
It is important to take into consideration that there are some indicators that are part of the abstract and that are defined as keywords.

The truth is that thanks to them we have the possibility of being able to locate the writing in the corresponding area of knowledge, it has to go from 3 to 5 words. When we talk about keywords, you can use a wide variety of terms, but what is really important is that they have the same meaning as the work you are doing. That is why it has to be oriented to what the research is and that is why it is essential that it is precise and has a synchronization with what has been developed, together with the expression of terms.

Here it is important to emphasize that they do not become common and ordinary terms, because these descriptive words have to give reference to the research.

To finish the clarification, the abstract will depend on where it is located and what the institutional norms are. This gives way to that it has a great importance at the moment of having to pretend that the work is completely visible for all the people with what has been written.