As part of your dissertation (mémoire) in year 5, you are expected to write an abstract in English. This is a short text (approximately 150 - 350 words long) that summarizes your thesis. It usually includes the following information:
- A statement of your subject.
- A description of how you have approached and treated it.
- Basic conclusions (if any) and perhaps...
- other questions that have been raised but not answered yet.
Optionally, some abstracts can end with a list of key words. This step is virtually obsolete today because data-mining, natural language machine-learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms do a good job of indexing significant terms.
The purpose of an abstract is to give other students and researchers a clear, concise idea of your subject area and general content of your dissertation. It helps decide quickly whether your work is relevant or not to their own investigations.
Abstract-o-matic Writing Method
- Remember, there are no rules, just conventions.
- Try and write directly in English.
- Start by making a list of the main ideas in your dissertation. Reduce them to perhaps 5 to 10 key words. This will help you in the next steps.
- Answer these questions;
- (a) What’s the big idea / question / subject ?
(General subject matter - specific question or issue)
- (b) How have you organized your analysis?
(Key areas studied - use your chapter or section titles)
- (c) What conclusions - if any - have you found?
(Do they confirm, express doubt or contradict established ideas? Do they suggest new areas of research? New hypotheses?)
- Take your answers (a), (b) and (c) and link them so that they form a logical sequence. JOB DONE!
- Ask friends to read the abstract and tell you what they think your dissertation is about. Modify your abstract if necessary and test again.
Resources
If you are stuck, write your abstract in French then use DeepL to translate. Send me a copy of both versions plus a light version (e.g. export pdf for web) of your dissertation.
And of course let me know at any time if you want to discuss or get feedback.
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