If potential readers are sufficiently attracted to the title, they will move on to the abstract, a short summary of the document that precedes the full text. If you are a non-English speaking author, be particularly aware of how to write this section because it may be the only part of your research text that needs to be in English. For even if they write their research in Catalan, Spanish or another language, many professional researchers are obliged to provide a version of the abstract in English. Abstracts in the social sciences exist in several different types, although some are more commonly used than others:

• Indicative/descriptive
  
  Indicative/descriptive abstracts are tables of contents more than summaries of the study as a whole. They are usually written as one paragraph, they describe rather than paraphrase and they are often written in the present tense. They tend to be used for documents that are less structured (for example, literature reviews) and longer (conference proceedings), and they give information on the purpose, the scope and the methodology but not on the results — sometimes because there are none. Indicative/descriptive abstracts, then, rouse curiosity about the work that has been done by giving essential preliminary information but do not satisfy this curiosity by giving specific answers. In the digital age, this type of abstract is hardly ever used for research studies. However, before online publication databases, the indicative/descriptive abstract was printed at the top of a paper mainly to encourage readers to continue reading and to facilitate the reading process by providing a brief preview. It was not regarded as an independent unit because it was not read without reference to the article itself.
  
  
• Informative
  
  Unlike indicative/descriptive abstracts, informative abstracts provide all the important information in a document and can therefore be regarded as miniature versions of the original. They are designed to optimize access to information so that readers get maximum benefit from minimum reading effort. They, too, are generally written as a single paragraph; they summarize all the sections of the paper (thus adding results, discussion and conclusions to the information given by an indicative abstract); and they use a variety of verb tenses depending on whether they are giving background information, describing the work done, or discussing the findings and their possibilities for the future. They tend to be longer than indicative/descriptive abstracts because they give more information, but they are usually no longer than 300 words (and often considerably shorter). Nowadays, the majority of abstracts for research documents in the social sciences are informative.
  
  
• Structured
  
  Structured abstracts provide the same information as informative abstracts but in distinct, headed sections (for example, Background, Methods, Results, Discussion), not in a single paragraph. This format was first developed in the 1980s in the health sciences to help professionals locate relevant, quality articles. It is a format that is still largely used only by researchers in the health sciences; but it may be required of social scientists working in overlapping fields (for example, nursing, medical anthropology, etc.), so consult your tutor if you think this format might suit your research text.
  
  Because most abstracts for research documents in the social sciences nowadays are informative, this is the format examined in the example below. As already mentioned, you should structure the abstract as a single paragraph. The numbers in square brackets mark the beginning of the sections discussed subsequently.
  
  

  Jazz Chants for Vowel Reduction and Language-Learning Motivation in Adolescent Learners of English in Catalonia [1] A lack of attention to pronunciation in foreign language lessons, together with L1 cross-linguistic influences, can lead to students having a negative perception of their own “foreign accents” partly because of their failure to achieve full vowel reduction. Although textbooks include pronunciation guidelines and exercises, using them has not resulted in significant improvements in student pronunciation or motivation. [2] The hypothesis of this study is that jazz chants – a pronunciation technique that focuses on word-level and sentence-level stress – will have a positive impact on the pronunciation and motivation of adolescents learning English as a foreign language in a Catalan secondary school. [3] The jazz chants technique was used in the daily English classes of a test group of 18 batxillerat students (one class group of 17–18 year olds) over a 3-month period. This test group was contrasted with a control group of comparable size which used traditional materials over the same period of time. Students from both groups were asked to record themselves reading a short text pre- and post-intervention and they were judged to have improved or not on the basis of their pronunciation of the weak vowels in unstressed syllables. [4] It was found that the jazz chants technique was more effective than the traditional materials at improving vowel reduction and motivation. It appeared to change students’ perceptions of their own accent and their attitudes towards pronunciation. However, its effect differed according to gender and stated first language, and proved to be more successful in female speakers of the Eastern/Central variety of Catalan. Also, improvements were moderate and the samples small so it remains to be seen whether longer interventions in bigger groups can give better results. [5] The results support the hypothesis that jazz chants can improve the pronunciation and motivation of English-language learners in the public education system in Catalonia.

  
  From the structure and content of the abstract above we can draw some conclusions about how to write informative abstracts in general.
  
  [1] Briefly give background factual information or describe the situation, problem or gap that has prompted you to focus on your chosen topic. The context you give here will explain why your research is important and why readers should care. It is the reason you asked the research question you did. Note that you have to assume that all those interested enough to read the abstract are specialists in the field, so there is no need to explain commonly used technical terms (for example, vowel reduction). Also note that the verbs are all in some form of the present tense (present simple and present perfect) because you are describing the current state of affairs.
  
  [2] State what your study does, what its purpose is or what problem it is attempting to solve. You might also make an explicit reference to your hypothesis (as is the case here). Make sure you define the scope of the research. In this case, it is not a study on “pronunciation and motivation” in general but on the “pronunciation and motivation of adolescents learning English as a foreign language in a Catalan secondary school”.
  
  [3] Describe your methodology. Although you do not have to give all the details in the abstract, give enough information to convince readers that it is sufficiently rigorous to generate reliable findings. Note the use of the past simple tense because you are describing work done.
  
  [4] One of the main functions of abstracts is to highlight new contributions to science, so this is a particularly important part of the text. Be positive about your results and findings without overstating their value because sometimes it is easy to exaggerate the significance of evidence from just one study on a particular issue. Be clear about general trends but use hedges (may, might, suggest, probably, etc.) so that you are not too forceful. Careful use of verb tenses can help you to express your findings. The text above uses the past simple tense in this part, which serves to limit the findings to the context of this particular study. If, however, you use the present simple tense, you make the much stronger claim that your results are generalizable and that you have found a general truth. Take care: there is a big difference between “It was found that the jazz chants technique was more effective” and “It was found that the jazz chants technique is more effective”.
  
  [5] In your conclusions, the last part of the abstract, make an explicit statement about what your research has achieved, what contribution it has made or whether it supports your initial hypothesis.
  
  You also need to think of other issues when drafting an abstract. Do not forget that there is a strict limit on the number of words you are allowed to write. Respect the word count because if you do not your supervisor may send it back to you and tell you to do it again. Or worse, they may start cutting out text without asking so that the end product is not a faithful reflection of the work you have done or what you think. The word limit for the text above was 300 words and the author has written precisely 300, not one word more or one word less. This is no coincidence. It is the result of constantly editing, applying the principles of plain prose and investing a considerable amount of time and effort.
  
  Remember also that abstracts are published and read by themselves, so they must make sense as independent, self-contained descriptions of research. Readers need to understand the key points even if they never see the whole article. For this reason, abstracts make no reference to the literature; readers should not be required to consult other works to make sense of the text they are reading.
  
  And, finally, although the abstract is one of the first sections of the text you read, after the title, it will probably be one of the last parts you write. It represents the complete document, and you have to know what is in the complete document before you can write it. The existence of a complete document can also help in the process of drafting the abstract because you can select the sentences that best represent each section, modify them and link them to form a cohesive unit.