Abstract Tips

This message is from previous graders.... Tips on writing abstracts from grading experience. Make sure you should use the tips in this list in conjunction with the web page which explains the specific requirements (as written by Prof. Erlinger) for abstracts. Also you will want to take a look at the sample abstracts. All this useful information can be found at

Any quotes below come from that page.

* Formatter: "some sort of text formatter: LaTeX, troff, Frame, html, etc." Several people did not use formatters: xemacs, pico, MS Word-- these are not text formatters. You should use one of those suggested.

* Information about the article: be sure and include all required details: course, name, abstract due date, date, article title, journal reference, and formatter. (You may also want to include the authors of the article.)

* Type of Article: Several abstracts were based on inappropriate articles. The articles you choose should be technical documents, not marketing items, press releases, etc. There are suggestions for places you can find these documents on the abstract requirements page. Whitepapers get touchy, as many are just marketing bs.

* Summaries: Some of the summaries were a bit too general (e.g. not technical enough). Be sure and demonstrate that you understood (or at least, tried to understand) what you read.

* Commentary: "The abstract should then include YOUR analysis of the article: information content, presentation approach, etc." Many people omitted commentary altogether or didn't make comments along these lines. When reading the abstract we should get a sense of whether you thought the article was well-written, whether it explained concepts clearly, whether the article is relevant to the subject area, whether you thought the article was well-organized, etc. This should be a paragraph (at least!).

* Prose: Your abstract should not be a list of bullet points about the article, it should be a series of paragraphs. There are examples of abstracts on the abstract requirements page.

* "Particular Abstracts": You'll notice on the web page (the URL of which is listed above) that there is a little table entitled "Particular Abstracts". You should pay particular attention to this because it indicates the general subject area of the article you should choose each week. Some of them say "Open Abstract", others are more specific ("Read a Paper on Processes"), but they differ for each week. Be sure the article you choose falls into the indicated subject area each week.

**Finally, spell and proof read your abstract!!!!!! If you have any questions about the grading or writing abstracts, you're welcome to contact either one of us.

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