ESP- Unit 4- Integrative Assignment Godoy,B., Goyeneche,X. ,Furlano,P.
Comparative Analysis of Abstracts from the Education
and Medicine Field
This paper compares and analyses two abstracts from the
education field (King, 2002; Rammal, 2006) and two from the medicine field
(Martinez, Assimes, Mines, Dell’ Aniello, & Suissa, 2008; Wijeysundera,
Beattie, Elliot, Austin, Hux, & Laupacis, 2010). Hubbuch (1996) defines
Research Papers’ (RP) Abstracts “as brief summaries of the major points made by
an author in a book or article” (p. 126). They are the first section that
appears in an RA, however, they are written as the final stage of the research.
Swales and Feak (1994) agree with Hubbuch (1996) in the fact that RP abstracts
“consists of a single paragraph containing from about four to ten full
sentences” (Swales & Feak, 1994, p.210).
The comparison will be
based in terms of structures, types, linguistic characteristics and
writing methods applied. The American Psychological Association (APA)
manual offers useful guidelines as regards abstracts’
composition, since “it allows readers to survey the contents of an article
quickly” (APA, 2008, p.12). Depending
on the kind of abstract there are some conventions writers have to
meet, that is, the organization, the linguistic specifications including the
use of full sentences, past tense, impersonal passive, the absence of
negatives, abbreviation and jargon, and tense variation (Swales & Feak,
1994; Swales, 1990). Swales and Feak (1994) distinguish two approaches to write abstracts:
the result-driven approach, related to the findings and the reached conclusion
and the RP summary approach which follows Introduction-
Methods-Results-And-Discussions (IMRAD) formula summarized in two sentences.
Concerning one of the articles from the medicine field written by Wijeysundera et al. (2010),
it could be stated that it is a structured abstract as it
contains bolded headings which identify the main sections in the RA (Swales
& Feak, 1994); this is probably because it follows certain requirements of specialized journals. It seems to
be a RP abstract as the article has been already written and the
audience could be any reader in the arena.
Wijeysundera et al.’s
(2010) abstract is informative since it is heavy on data; it looks to the past
and describes what the researchers did. Moreover, it follows the IMRAD formula
(Swales & Feak, 1994; Swales, 1990).
As
regards linguistics specifications, it includes some use of full sentences and
the use of impersonal passive (Graetz, 1985), for instance: “…testing was
associated with improved one year survival…” (Wijeysundera et al., 2010, Abstract, p.1). Some sentences are not fully
complete, probably because subheadings provide the information about the
content of each section. There is an absence of abbreviations, jargon and
negatives and the Conclusion is written in the present tense (Swales & Feak, 1994; Swales, 1990). As regards APA
conventions it does not follow some rules as
it does not begin on a new page, the word “Abstract” is not centered and it
should not be bolded.
The
second abstract from the medicine field was written by Martínez et al. (2010);
it presents similarities with Wijeysundera et al's (2010) abstract. This abstract is also
structured as it is divided into sections, and it contains bolding headings
with the aim of identifying each main section in the RA. It is informative
providing the readers with the main findings (Swales & Feak, 1994; Swales,
1990). It seems to be an RP abstract and it follows the IMRAD
formula, allowing the reader to preview the content of the Research Article.
The conciseness and the amount of specific information presented may attract
readers to go on reading the rest of the paper.
Regarding
its linguistic features it is mostly written in full sentences and there is use
of past tense as well as passive structures. Martinez et al.'s (2010) abstract does not present
abbreviations and negatives. The choice of verb tenses in the Conclusions section differs
from Wijeysundera et al.'s (2010) article as it is written in the
past passive. Concerning APA conventions, the abstract does not comply with
certain requirements as the word “Abstract” is not centered, it is bolded and
capitalized. Martinez et al. (2010) seem to be acquainted with current changes
in APA style as they use personal passive: “We did a nested case-control
analysis (…)” (Martinez et al., 2010, Abstract, p.1). APA (2008) states that in
co-authored papers it can be used the second person plural pronoun. Both
medicine abstracts have been written following the result-driven approach as
the findings are deeply described and the conclusion would serve as a stride
for future works.
As regards the educational area, King’s (2002)
abstract is an indicative abstract as it summarizes the information
presented in the article and it has been written following the RP summary approach. It does not include specific results but describes the
use of the DVD as an educational resource, as the author points out that “DVD
has vastly replaced traditional VHS (…)" (King,
2002, p.1). As for its structure, it is an unstructured type of abstract, which
consists of a single, unbroken paragraph of 10 lines (Swales & Feak, 1994).
Full sentences are used to show the content to the audience and it is
positioned at the beginning of the RA. Conversely, the author does not follow
the IMRAD formula and the word "Abstract" is not written in a single
page and it is bolded and italized.
Considering abstracts' linguistics specifications
proposed by Graetz (1985) the whole
abstract is written in the present tense as for instance, “this paper starts
off by discussing film-viewing approaches, and then assessing (…)" (King, 2002,
Abstract, p.1). Moreover, it is characterized by the absence of negatives and
the avoidance of jargon, and symbols, and the last sentences of the abstract is
written in the passive voice, since it focuses on the receiver rather on the
writer. APA manual (2008) calls of for “continuity in words, concepts, and
thematic development” (p.32), and this issue in not respected by the
author as he fails to clarify the terms DVD and VHS that might distract the reader.
The fourth abstract analyzed is also from the
education field and it belongs to Rammal (2006). As King’s abstract (2002), the
author introduces his project by means of an
indicative and unstructured abstract, as it describes what the researcher
intends to do (Swales and Feak,
1994). Similar to the previous
educational abstract, Rammal (2006) does not follow APA (2008) format layout as
the word Abstract is wrongly placed; it is not centered, it is bold-typed,
and it is followed by a semi colon. Moreover, neither Rammal (2008) nor King
(2002) follows IMRAD formula for writing abstracts, use a new page for their
abstracts and no keywords are listed. Rammal’s (2006) educational paper does not
pursue any of the stated approaches for writing abstracts. It is just a
two-sentence paragraph that refers only to the Introduction section.
With reference to the linguistic aspects, Rammal’s
(2006) abstract is the shortest of the four as it encloses five lines with
less than a hundred words. As opposed to King (2002) the word limited is not
respected and the analysis show that the abstract is not written as a
description of the RA. Two long sentences
constitute this paragraph; the first sentence is written in the present tense
whilst future tense is used for the second one. As King’s (2002) abstract,
there is also use of full sentences and an absence abbreviations and negatives.
But, unlike King’s abstract (2002), there is no use of impersonal passive and
the acronym English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is clarified next to the
contraction.
Abstracts should be brief, self contained and accurate (APA, 2008). They
should contain specific data and be coherent and readable as it is the reader’s
first contact with the RA. After analyzing the four abstracts, it might be
concluded that depending on the field of research, abstracts may present
different formats and ways of structuring information, and also vary in their
linguistic aspects and methods of writing. Whilst the medicine RAs mostly comply with standard requirements
and rules when publishing papers, the educational RAs fail to follow these
conventions. None of the four follow APA (2008) manual for writing abstracts,
as this section of the RA is not separated from the rest of the article. This
might be due to publishers’ requirements concerning space and cost reduction.
References
Hubbuch, S. M. (1996). Writing research paper across the curriculum.
(4th ed.). Harcourt Brace: Fort Worth, TX.
American Psychological
Association (2008). Publication
Manual (5th ed.). Washington, DC: British Library
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
King, J.
(2002). Using DVD feature films in the
EFL classroom. [Abstract]. The weekly
column, 88, 1-10.
Martínez, C., Assimes, T.L.,
Mines, D., Dell’Aniello, S., & Suissa, S. (2010). Use of venlafaxine compared with other
antidepressants and the risk of sudden cardiac death or near death: A nested
case-control study. [Abstract]. British
Medical Journal, 340: c249, 1-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c249.
Rammal, S. M. (2006). Video in EFL Classrooms. [Abstract]. Retrieved
from: http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/video-in-efl-classrooms.html
Swales, J. M.
(1990). Genre analysis: English in
academic and research settings. (Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Swales,
J. M., & Feak, C. B. (1994). Academic
writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
Wijeysundera, D.N., Beattie, W. S., Elliot, R.F., Austin, P. C., Hux, J.E., &
Laupacis, A. (2010). Non-invasive cardiac stress testing before elective major
non-cardiac surgery: Population based cohort study. [Abstract]. British Medical Journal, 340: b5526,
1-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b5526
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