Northwest College

For Presenters

What is an Abstract?

An abstract gives an overview of the project and, in part, serves as a means of communicating why a project will be of interest to the audience. Because the event is open to the entire campus and the general public, discipline-specific terms, symbols, and abbreviations should be limited only to that which is meaningful to the project. Please use technical language sparingly.

Successful abstracts may answer some of the following questions:

• What question is the project attempting to answer?
• What was the motivation to work on this project?
• What background information does a reader need to fully understand the work?
• What points best summarize the research, demonstration, exhibit or performance?
• What results, conclusions, or final product will the presenter share?
• What are the larger implications or significance of the project?
• Who is the intended audience for the project?   

Writing Your Abstract

An abstract summarizes, in one paragraph, the major aspects of your poster, presentation, or product (painting, ceramic piece, photography, welding piece, etc.). Your maximum 200-word abstract should include a title and be descriptive of your project. Abstracts are often organized this way:

1. your project’s purpose or topic for investigation;
2. project or research design (research methods);
3. what you found or discovered; and,
4. a brief summary of your interpretations and conclusions. An informative (includes results) rather than descriptive (tells what you did) abstract is preferred but we realize that results are sometimes not available upon abstract submission, but urge you to do the best you can.

Different majors and fields treat abstracts differently so be sure you discuss your abstract with your mentor so you do what’s best for your field. Citations are not necessary within an abstract.

It is expected that your abstract will be a summary of your own work, or work done in collaboration with your peers/co-presenters, or work done with your mentor. Your mentor should guide you in developing the abstract and answer questions on what to include for a specific discipline. As your abstract will be published and distributed on campus, it is important that you carefully check it for correct spelling and grammar. Your mentor must proof and approve your abstract before you submit it.

You will need to submit your abstract for your mentor to review by March 22. Once your mentor has approved it, they will submit it to the Student Academic Showcase committee. Final abstracts need to be to the SAS committee by April 5.