Abstract Analysis

Abstract analysis on Research Papers from the Natural and Social fields

Research articles (RAs) not only provide readers with information on the latest discoveries or further descriptions of an existent theory or concept, but also RAs show the writers’ belongingness to a field of knowledge and discourse community. Depicting the peculiarities of RAs involves accounting for the characteristics of the professional field as well as the sections included. The present work will delve into the Abstract section of two RAs from the natural science written by Martinez, Assimes, Mines, Dell’Aniello, & Suissa, (2010),  and Jørgensen, Zahl & Gøtzsche (2010),  and two from the social field written by Almerich, Suárez, Orellana, Belloch, Bo, & Gastaldo (2005), and Munson & Degelman (n.d.). In order to describe the attributes of this section, a comparative analysis has been made.

From the analysis of the Abstracts, we may conclude that the four of them are informative as they describe what the researchers did; therefore, there is a heavy focus on data. As in Jorgensen, et. al, (2010), it can be read: "In women of the same age in the non-screening areas, there was a decline of 2% in mortality per year (RR0.98, 95%CI 0.97 to0.99) in the same10 year period" (p1). Broad characteristics of this section are fulfilled: There is an introduction in which the objectives of each are set; a brief description of the participants/materials follows and, finally, the results together with the conclusions are reported concisely. However, depending on the field they belong, the papers differ in their structures: while the Social sciences Abstracts use an unstructured organizational format is consisting of a unified paragraph in which sentences are cohesively connected; the Abstracts from the natural sciences take a structured format which presents bolded headings introducing each of its components (Swales and Feak, 1994; Swales, 1990).

Linguistic features of the section examined are equally illustrated in both fields. Full sentences as well as tense mobility are observed. Opening sentences are generally written in present or present perfect (Swales and Feak, 1990; Swales, 1994), as in Almerich, et al. (2005) “... (ICT) in education supposes that faculty must possess competencies for it” (p.1). The other analysed paper from the social sciences uses simple past whereas the Abstracts from the natural sciences do not present an opening. The sentences describing the participants, methods and results show tense variation: present simple, past simple as well as passive voice. Regarding he concluding sentences, the tendency is to use present tenses to write them. Conversely, Martinez, et al. (2010) and Jørgensen, et al. (2010) have chosen the past tense. For example: “(…) the use of venlafaxine was not associated with …” (Martinez, et al., 2010). Negatives are not acknowledged.

On balance, without losing their main objectives, the authors of the four studies have seriously attempted not only to attract readers to continue reading their pieces but also to summarize their researches expressing the main ideas or parts included in them under the light of pre-established discourse conventions. Particularly noticeable is the organization of the content in each of the Abstracts reflecting the way of thinking of both the social and natural fields and fairly respecting the guidelines about linguistic specifications and conventions to format a paper.

 

 

 

References

American Psychological Association (2007). Concise rules of APA style. Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. 

Almerich, G., Suárez, J. M.., Orellana, N., Belloch, C., Bo, R. y Gastaldo, I. (2005). Diferencias en los conocimientos de los recursos tecnológicos en profesores a partir del género, edad y tipo de centro. RELIEVE, 11 (2), 127-146. Retrieved from: http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v11n2/RELIEVEv11n2_3.htm

Jørgensen, K. J., Zahl, P-H., & Gøtzsche, P. C. (2010). Breast cancer mortality in organised mammography screening in Denmark: comparative study. BMJ, 1 – 6. doi:10.1136/bmj.c1241

Martinez, 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. BMJ, 1 – 9. doi:10.1136/bmj.b5526

Munson, L. M. & Degelman D., (n.d.) Distant Intercessory Prayer and Task Performance. Vanguard University of Southern California.

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.