The Abstract

Why is there an abstract in your dissertation, and why does it matter? The abstract is actually the most important part of your entire paper. It is this part of the document that people will read in the future to get a summary of your study. Picture future grad students searching the dissertation abstracts for a topic related to their interests. They bring up your title and abstract, from this document they will decide whether to investigate your paper further. Remember, your dissertation is contributing to the literature in your profession, and future researchers will want to know what you did in the study and your results. With this in mind, the formality and requirements for the abstract begin to make sense. 

Your study needs to be briefly introduced so your reader has a mental picture of where it stands in the literature – what do you see as the gap in the literature? Then you want to explain the type of study you are doing and what theoretical framework you are using. Next, briefly explain how many people participated and how you recruited them. Then a brief summary of your results needs to be given. Finally, being that you are graduating from Walden, you need to tie your study and its results to social change. All of this needs to be done in one page. Yes, it will be difficult, but it also makes you clearly identify the key aspects of your study, so save this part for the end of the process (you will need a preliminary draft for the proposal too). 

Next time, I will begin a look at Chapter 1 and why each of the sections are included. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu