1. ABSTRACTS
TEACHING AND LEARNING RESEARCH GRANT
HOLDER
WRITING FOR PUBLICATION WORKSHOP
VIVIENNE 1BOZALEK

2. Introduction
• What is an abstract?
• Why is it important?
• How would I write an abstract?
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3. What is an abstract?
• Different for different journals - array of conventions/genres
(Kamler & Thomson, 2006; Murray, 2009)
A quantitative example which places importance on the
following:
• Abstracts begin with what is known, what isn't known and
what needs to be research, followed by a justification of the
work researched
• Theme sentence to grab readers' attention, main aim,
importance of study, methodology, main findings,
statement of conclusions, implications
• Short summary of article max 200-250 words
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4. The seven el em s
ent
El em 1Br ief t hem sent ence;
ent e
El em 2 M pur pose or aimof st udy
ent ain
El em 3 Academ or pr act ical im t ance of st udy
ent ic por
El em 4: M hodol ogy of t he st udy
ent et
El em 5: M f indings of t he st udy
ent ain
El em 6: Concl usions or cont r ibut ion t o l it er at ur e
ent
El em 7: Im icat ions of st udy
ent pl
( r ef er ence: Kot ze web.up.ac.za )
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5. Why is an abstract important?
• Window display or advert for your own work
• Kamler & Thomson (2006) call abstracts 'tiny texts' - need to learn to write
persuasively about research small amount of words but large in what they can
accomplish
• Often only your abstract will be read by other researchers
• Authors scan them
• Highlights issues of authority and voice - 'compress rhetorical act of arguing into a
small textual space using a small number of words' (Kamler & Thomson, 2006:85)
• Needs to be compelling bid for inclusion in scholarly events - can be seen as a
legitimate knower (Kamler & Thomson, 2006:85)
• So what? Question - given that there is so much out there why would people be
interested in reading your text and not someone elses? (Kamler& Thomson,
2006:90)
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6. Story of your article
(Thanks to Lucia Thesen for this slide)
• Once upon a time researchers believed
that …
• But then I thought that maybe …
• So what I did was …
• And I’ve discovered that …
• Which changed the way that we …
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7. Draft 1 - Elizabeth gets abstracted (Kamler
& Thomson, 2006:86-87)
In this article I argue that careful analysis of
very young children’s use of ICT and other
technologies suggests that both the
dominance of print in emergent literacy
education, and school expectations of the
literacy achievements of children prior to
formal schooling, may require review.
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8. Draft 2
In this paper I explore how three young boys in the
period of pre-school transition use ICT and other
technologies. I suggest that neither the dominance of
print in emergent literacy education, not school
expectations of the literacy achievements of children
prior to formal schooling, attend to the versatility with
literacy technologies demonstrated by these very
young children and that this failure could inhibit their
continuing literacy development both in ICTs and
print.
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9. Draft 3
Recent investigations of early and emergent literacy
seriously underestimate young children’s capacity to
use ICTs and other technologies in becoming literate,
and print continues to be privileged as the dominant
literacy for young children. In this article I examine
how three young boys used ICT in the period of pre-
school transition and highlight the complexity of their
multimodal reading and writing practices. I argue that
unless schools attend to young children’s versatility
with literacy technologies, this failure could inhibit
their continuing literacy development both in ICTs
and print.
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10. How to write an abstract
• What is the research problem being addressed?
• How do I locate the significance of my own
work?
• What conversation am I in? Where am I
standing in relation to this research problem?
• What do I offer as an alternative to existing
research?
• What is my argument? (Kamler & Thomson,
2006:88)
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11. Four moves
thanks to Lucia Thesen for this useful slide
• Locate: specific paper in relation to larger
projects/debates/issues, naming the angle
• Focus: identify the particular questions/issues/kinds
of problems that the paper will explore/examine
• Report: summarise major findings pertinent to the
argument, outlining the research, sample, method of
analysis
• Argue: open out the argument, analysis,
possibilities, and indicate a point of view, returning to
the angle
Kamler and Thomson (2004), (2006)
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12. References
• Feldmann, D.C. (2004). The devil is in the details;
Converting good research into publishable articles.
Journal of Management, 30(1):1-6.
• Kotze, T. n.d. Guidelines on writing a first quantitative
academic article. Department of Marketing and
Communication Managemetn. University of Pretoria.
web.up.ac.za (accessed 20 November, 2011)
• Murray, R. (2009). Writing for Academic Journals.
Second edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
• Kamler, B. & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping doctoral
students write: Pedagogies for supervision. London &
New York: Routledge.
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13. Now you can t r y t o r e/const r uct your own abst r act
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14. Exam es of abst r act s
pl
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