How to … write an abstract

Abstract writing, a necessary academic skill for all researchers, is an art in succinct and compelling scientific storytelling. The concise nature of an abstract emphasises these challenges: How can we apply principles for effective written communication in a concentrated and compact form without losing comprehension? The guidelines below will support abstract writing for submission acceptance, use and citation.^1-3

Lingard and Watling's⁴ ‘It's a story, not a study’ provides a paradigmatic shift in thinking about academic writing. While a study lives in the methods and results of a report, a story unfolds in the introduction, discussion and conclusion.⁵ A study may be primarily concerned with the accuracy of the reporting, but a story seeks to be persuasive—understandable, compelling and memorable.⁵ To be persuasive, writers should focus on the how (organisation or structure of writing) and why (relevance and impact of writing, i.e., introduction, discussion and conclusion) questions, over the what (i.e., methods).⁶ However, foundational to a persuasive story is academic rigour; without quality, a story cannot be compelling.

Varpio et al.³ outline how to develop a persuasive argument through use of ‘ethos’ (appeal to credibility), ‘pathos’ (appeal to emotion) and ‘logos’ (appeal to logic) (Table 1). The ‘problem, gap, hook’ heuristic is another helpful guide in capturing the essential elements of an successful abstract (Table 1).^{4, 5}

Abstracts should tell stories. These stories need to be accessible to the reader: The narrative should be easy to follow, the structure logical and cohesive and the content understandable (i.e., ‘logos’).^{1-3, 10, 16} The story must appeal to the reader, grabbing their interest through relevance and relatability (i.e., ‘pathos’). While the packaging of a story is crucial, no amount of good writing can make up for shoddy science or poor quality research, such as ignoring the literature, poorly design studies, inappropriate methods, insufficient data collection and a lack of relevance, rigour, originality or innovation (i.e., ‘ethos’).^{1, 3, 6, 10, 13} Lastly, practice makes perfect. It is only through writing, and re-writing, that we can improve in our craft.

Danica Anne Sims: Conceptualization; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing; investigation; visualization; formal analysis; project administration; resources.

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

The authors have no ethical statement to declare.