UNDERGRADUATE NURSING GUIDELINES FOR WRITING AN ABSTRACT 
FOR A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Checklist: Parts of an Abstract
Adapted from “How to Write an Abstract,”(10/20/97),Phil Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University

Despite the fact that an abstract is quite brief, it must do almost as much work as the proposal that follows it. This means that it should in most cases include the following sections. Each section is typically a single sentence, although there is room for creativity. In particular, the parts may be merged or spread among a set of
sentences. Use the following as a checklist for your next abstract:

Motivation (Significance):

Why do we care about the problem and the results? If the problem isn't obviously interesting" it might be better to put motivation first; but if your work is incremental progress on a problem that is widely recognized as important, then it is probably better to put the problem statement first to indicate which piece of the larger problem you are breaking off to work on. This section should include the importance of your proposed work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful. 
     
Problem statement:
     
What problem are you trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach, or for a specific situation)? Be careful not to use too much jargon. In some cases it is appropriate to put the problem statement before the motivation, but usually this only works if most readers already understand why the problem is important. 
     
Approach:

How will you go about solving or making progress on the problem? What important variables will you control, ignore, or measure? 
     
Conclusions:

What are the nursing implications of your proposed study? Is it going to change the world (unlikely), be a significant "win", be a nice hack, or simply serve as a road sign indicating that this path is a waste of time (all of the previous results are useful). Are your results general, potentially generalizable, or specific to a particular case? 

Your abstract should not exceed one typed, single-spaced page. If you have already created a poster for presentation, you should attach a letter-size copy.

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