Guidelines to writing abstract for seminars conferences

Firstly, there is nothing to fear when it comes to writing an abstract. Abstracts

are short pieces of academic writing that provides an overview of your
research, either partially or in full. These guidelines provide some helpful
pointers to writing an abstract and are particularly aimed at first time
presenters to a conference.

What is an abstract?

An abstract is a very brief (often between 200-300 words in length) overview

of your research. It tells the reader WHAT you did, WHY you did it, HOW you
did it, WHAT you found, and WHAT it means. The abstract should also
include all the key words in your research, so that other researchers can
retrieve information from it. Finally, the abstract will follow a set of guidelines
as stipulated by the conference where you will present your paper.

How an abstract is organised

The abstract should clearly demonstrate how your research links to the theme
of the conference. It should also state the purpose of the research
(introduction), how the problem was studied (methods), the principal findings
(results), and what the findings mean (discussion and conclusion). It is
important to be descriptive but concise--say only what is essential, using no
more words than necessary to convey meaning.

The Writing Style

Most abstracts are written within one paragraph and the style should
incorporate the Four C’s of abstract writing. According to UC Regents (2006)
The Four C’s include the following:

• Complete - it covers the major parts of your research.

• Concise – it contains no excess wordiness or unnecessary
information.
• Clear – it is readable, well organised and not too jargon –laden.
• Cohesive – it flows smoothly between the parts

Writing the abstract

The following suggestions are indicative and aimed to give you some ideas to
help you shape your abstract:

1. Choose a title that clearly indicates the topic of the paper and is not more
than 20 words.
2. State the problem or research question raised by prior work, with specific
reference to relevant prior research.
3. State the main point or argument of the proposed presentation.
4. If your paper presents the results of experiments, that are not yet
complete, then state this in your abstract, but give an indication of any
early results.
5. State the relevance of your ideas to past work or to the future development
of the field. Describe analyses in as much detail as possible. Avoid saying
in effect "a solution to this problem will be presented." If you are taking a
stand on a controversial issue, summarize the arguments that lead you to
your position.
6. Your research should be ethical, particularly in sensitive areas or with
vulnerable participants and this should be made explicit in your abstract
and subsequent paper.

The following abstracts were submitted for the 2006 Research

Student Conference:

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAMSCHOOL OF EDUCATION

(Edgbaston Campus)

Research Student Conference 2006

Saturday 1st July 2006

10:00 am – 4:00pm

ABSTRACT FOR PAPER

Name: Eulet Davy
Institution: University of Nottingham
Degree Programme: PhD

Researching Education: Different Ways of Knowing and Doing in Educating

Black Young People.

Abstract

Much of mainstream schooling in Britain, favours a Euro-centric, White,

middle class curriculum, to which sections of the school community may not
have access. Young people who do not conform to these norms and values
are put at a disadvantage in terms of their academic achievement. Numerous
studies have shown that where young people are recognised and valued by
school processes and procedures; expectations are high and learning takes
place in an environment of mutual respect, this is reflected in their enhanced
school performance.

This paper presents the initial findings of an evaluation of alternative ways of

knowing and doing in educating Black young people with the focus being on
learning which strategies work. Qualitative methods were used, via interviews
and focus groups, with a selection of young people enrolled on programmes
geared towards raising academic achievement and personal performance: 2
in Nottingham and 1 in Birmingham. Participants were approached via a
number of formal and informal contacts built up during the course of my
professional career as a teacher both in schools and in voluntary educational
organisations. Participants gave their consent to being involved and retained
the right to withdraw that consent at any point during the study. Stories were
collected from the young people, their parents, teachers and the agencies,
which worked with them, on the effects of mainstream schooling and the
agencies’ programmes on the achievement of these young people. Initial
findings demonstrate that young people who were enrolled on these
programmes, some of which were run in collaboration with schools, have
demonstrated levels of personal development and academic achievement not
always demonstrated in school. The methodology will employ Critical Race
Theory as its theoretical framework. The study, which forms the basis of this
paper, has policy implications for the education of Black young people.

Title: The ‘fCUBE’ policy in Ghana. Reality or Rhetoric? An interpretive

and critical discourse analysis (CDA) perspective.

Hope Pius Nudzor

PhD Candidate
Department of Educational and Professional Studies
University of Strathclyde
E-mail: hope.p.nudzor@strath.ac.uk

Abstract.
This study is a follow-up to the findings of a small-scale exploratory enquiry
undertaken by the researcher on the free, compulsory, universal basic
education (fCUBE) policy in the Akatsi District of Ghana. The study is using
the conceptual framework of policy as a ‘text’ and ‘discourse’ in examining
and understanding the apparent paradox in educational policy
implementation- why policy implementers end-up pursuing different agendas
when it comes to putting into action the ideas and provisions formulated for
implementation. Data from the ‘fCUBE’ policy-documentation and elite
interviews is being analysed using the CDA and interpretive frameworks
respectively to find out what the provisions enshrined in the ‘fCUBE’ policy
documentation say or suggest, and how these provisions are perceived,
conceptualised and interpreted by the meso-level implementers. The analysis
is aimed at showing how the issues of discourse and interpretation of the
‘fCUBE’ policy provisions impact on the implementation and institutionalisation
process. The findings will help to document the extent to which there are any
multiple, competing, marginalised and hybrid discourses in the ‘fCUBE’ policy-
text. They will also help to indicate if there are visible signs of any discursive
shift(s) in policy provisions and how this affects the policy implementation
process. Generally, the findings will serve as useful pointers to the extent to
which the ‘free’, ‘compulsory’ and ‘universal’ components of the ‘fCUBE’ policy
are genuinely reflected in the implementation process.
Here are some other examples taken from a thematic seminar
series on ‘Social diversity and Difference: Influence on
Participation, Learning and Teaching in HE’ February 2005-
April 2006
Diane Nutt abstract
Work now - pay later: first generation students’ aspirations versus reality

A recent ESF funded research project at the University of Teesside has been
examining why ‘non-traditional’ students leave or stay in HE. The majority of
students studying at Teesside are first generation entrants from a variety of
groups under-represented in higher education. Almost all of them are from
working class backgrounds.

According to the research findings, a key factor in students aspirations and

success is ‘paid work’. In the study, many of the respondents identified
obtaining a good job as the main reason they came to university. Claims
about ‘graduate jobs’ as better paid and more fulfilling has convinced many
young people from low participation neighbourhoods that going to university
will give them access to successful and satisfying careers. Ironically however,
the research at Teesside also found that the majority of these students were
already in paid work alongside full time study. In our survey of over 800 first
years, more than half were doing 15-25 hours of paid work alongside their
’full-time’ studies. These jobs are low status and low paid, but impact in
important ways on the students’ learning experiences, their wider university
experiences and their subsequent careers. This presentation will consider
some of those implications and the tension between aspiration and reality in
terms of paid work for working class students.

Miriam David abstract

A massive university or a university for the masses? Who goes where in
higher education: issues of gender, class, and ethnicity

Expansion of higher education has continued inexorably over the last 3

decades, and recent rhetoric of the new Labour Government in the UK
celebrates this whilst also aiming to further widen participation and access.
However, a key feature of this expansion, or 'massification' has rarely been
acknowledged viz the increasing participation of women in higher education
such that they now constitute 53% of all undergraduates. Similar proportions
of women undergraduates are to be found in other countries, especially in
Europe.

This paper draws on data from an English study (with Diane Reay and
Stephen Ball) and from a study in Spain by Delia Langa Rosado to
problematise these issues and argues that the massification of higher
education has been accompanied by a deepening of social stratification within
HE. Thus we have now massive universities rather than universities for the
masses. This paper explores these complexities to demonstrate that both
young and mature students confront very differing higher educations and
choices that continue to be shaped by social class and ethnicity.
Heather Mendick abstract
Fixing mathematics and excluding others: exploring the social justice
implications of current responses to the 'dropout' from mathematics post-16

There is currently a lot of discussion around the lack of young people opting to
study mathematics at university. The media, policy makers and researchers
have, for example, expressed concerns about the shortage of mathematics
teachers, having sufficient, skilled workers to service the 'knowledge
economy', and the general levels of mathematical literacy of the population.

In this paper I hope to shed some light on the issues raised by these concerns
by looking at the earlier choice point at 16+. Drawing on data from a 3 year
qualitative study of how young people choose mathematics, I will provide an
original approach to looking at what happens in the transition from GCSE to
AS-level. Most current approaches to understanding the drop out from and
disenchantment with mathematics focus on curriculum and assessment.

In contrast I will look at the role of relationships. I will argue that practitioners
and policy-makers are responding to stories of failure and dropout by adopting
approaches that are excluding more people from access to mathematics and,
in particular, are systematically excluding female and working-class students.
This happens because of the ways that discourses around mathematics fix
how we think of the subject, who can learn it and what kind of relationships
are possible between learners and mathematics. I will also explore what
alternatives to this version of mathematics might look like.
An inclusive and joined up model of working across the educational sectors
from the community, schools and further education to higher education is
proposed.

Joyce Canaan abstract

'It makes you think about new things that you wouldn’t normally consider’:
Possibilities for and limits of critical pedagogy in Higher Education today

How far can critical pedagogues nurture students and their own critical hope
in HE today? This paper explores my research-based efforts to do so at a
time of crisis in HE, the public sector generally, the nation and the world. HE
in particular is being restructured and is leading to a situation where lecturers
find that their work is under-resourced, and subjected to regimes of new
managerialism and to work-intensification. Concomitantly, a growing
proportion of students, trained in their prior education to think instrumentally in
formal learning, face work-intensification as they must pay ever higher fees for
HE learning. The paper focuses on data collected during 2003-04 from focus
groups and in-depth interviews with third year students on one of my modules,
examining contradictions in students' perceptions of their learning and my
teaching to consider if and how it might be possible to move beyond limited
possibilities for such critical hope in HE today.
For more abstracts and examples of completed conference
papers go to: www.wlv.ac.uk/social_diversity

Summary: Qualities of a Good Abstract

• Establish the significance of your research

• Identify the main objective(s) of your research
• State your argument
• Provide details of the methodology used
• Present some or all of the main findings
• Present the main conclusions
• Follows the brief given by the conference organiser including word
limit, style and submission date

And finally, I am indebted to my friend and colleague - Andy

Hollyhead who kindly provides a very light hearted approach
to writing abstracts check out his blog at:
http://andyhollyhead.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/writing-abstracts/)

And check out the abstract he wrote along with colleague Sharon Cox
that was accepted for a conference in New York!

Critical Success Factors to Engage Reflection in Education:

Professional Development of Educators and Students

Critical reflection is accepted as a key stage in the learning process providing

a means to make sense of both the content and process of learning. It
provides the opportunity to evaluate experience and synthesise ideas for
learning, facilitate problem solving, as well as personal and professional
development. A key challenge for educators is how to encourage students to
engage in reflective practice.

Blogs have achieved widespread acceptance in society. The use of social

spaces such as MySpace™ and Facebook™ have hastened the development
of what is being popularly called ‘Web 2.0’. The opportunity to use blogs in
education to encourage student engagement in reflection is enabled by the
social acceptance of blogging outside the learning environment.

This paper examines two case studies of using blogs to encourage critical
reflection. The balance between ‘knowledge sharing’ and ‘personal reflection’
is a fine one, and this paper identifies prompting questions which can be used
to ensure that the balance is maintained through the student’s learning
journey.
Reflection is also an important element of professional practice. The paper
discusses the use of blogs by educators to reflect on their personal
development. The experience of educators is evaluated to gain deeper
understanding of the challenges faced in using blogs for reflection with the
aim of improving the guidance provided to students.

The paper critically evaluates the experience of using blogs by both students
and educators and concludes by presenting a framework of critical success
factors for academics and industrial trainers who are considering using blogs
to encourage reflection both in their learning and that of their students

References:
The Abstract. Available on line from: www.languages.ait.ac.th/e121abst.htm
[accessed 10/1/2007]

How to write an Abstract. Available on line from:

http://urc.ucdavis.edu/how towriteanabstract.html [accessed 10/1/2007]

Writing Abstracts. Available on line from:

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html
[accessed 10/1/2007]

Further resources:
An excellent website for student presentations that includes information on
writing abstracts, poster presentations and oral presentations can be found at:
http://www2.sacnas.org/confnew/confclient/presentationResources.asp

More abstracts and examples of completed conference papers can be

found at: www.wlv.ac.uk/social_diversity

Research dissemination: The art of writing an abstract for conferences.

This article by Jane Coad and Patric Devitt provides a very useful step-by-
step approach to writing abstracts. It includes how to get started, choosing
your title, content and what to do before you submit your abstract. The article
can be found at:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1471595305000934 then click on to
Article via ScienceDirect

Writing your abstract: - A Guide for Conference Presenters by Gavin

Fairbairn and Susan Fairbairn. ISBN:1 9038771 3X (2004)

Beverley Maynard
March 2007