It is one of the most important parts of your dissertation – a dissertation abstracts is a concise summary of your research. Readers can review the research problem, objectives, methods, findings, and conclusions with this short summary and decide whether to read the entire dissertation. The abstract is the first impression you must make on your examiners and other readers, and it should be well-structured and informative.
Definition of a Dissertation Abstract
Dissertation abstracts usually run from 150 to 300 words and describe in a brief form your study. It answers these key questions:
What is the research problem?
What is important about this research?
How did you go about researching?
What are the key findings?
What does this mean?
The abstract summarises your entire work so other researchers can quickly determine whether your research is relevant to them.
Importance of an Abstract
The dissertation abstract is important for several reasons:
First Impression: It is the part of your dissertation that readers see first and can provide the tone for the rest.
Summarises Key Points: This section provides a short summary of your research so readers can easily view its scope and results.
Discovery: With this, your research can be indexed in databases and noticed by others in your field.
How to Write an Effective Dissertation Abstract?
1. Write It After You Finish Your Dissertation
As you finish the whole dissertation, it’s easier to summarize your work. Once you’re done with your research writing, you will grasp the main points you should mention in the abstract.
2. Include Essential Elements
Every abstract should contain the following core elements:
- Research Problem: State the problem your research addresses.
- Research Objectives: State briefly the purpose or goals of your study.
- Methodology: Summarise how you researched your topic and the data collection and analysis methods.
- Key Findings: Pick out the most important results of your research.
- Conclusion and Implications: To summarise the findings and their impact on the field.
3. Be Concise and Direct
They must be brief but short enough. Go into a manageable amount of detail on the most critical stuff of your research paper outline. Each sentence should hold merit and should get the points across clearly.
4. Use Past Tense
Because your dissertation describes research that has already been completed, your abstract should be written in the past tense, particularly when discussing what you did. Yet, you can use the present tense when talking about the relevance of what you found.
5. Try not to use Jargon and instead keep it Simple
If your paper has been written well, it is easy for the general audience to understand the dissertation abstracts. The language used shall avoid jargon, technical terms, and jargon or unexplained acronyms. If you need to use specific terminology, define it in the Text or at least in an easy-to-understand context.
6. Follow Word Count Guidelines
Follow the word limit set by your institution. Almost all dissertation abstracts have 150 to 300 words, although most programs might have different requirements. Stay concise and in on the guidelines.
7. Maintain Objectivity
The meaning of an abstract is that it is an objective summary of your work without any personal opinion or subjective statement. The facts and results should be conveyed as plainly as possible.
This dissertation abstracts shows a few examples that students can refer to once they understand the process of writing a dissertation abstract.
Title: Detection of SYN Flood DDoS attacks using Time Series Analysis on BoT–IoT Dataset.
Abstract Example:
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks irritate network security threats, especially SYN Flood attacks. This dissertation uses the BoT-IoT dataset to investigate the effectiveness of time series analysis in detecting SYN Flood DDoS attacks. This study intends to generate a method of accurately detecting patterns in SYN packet traffic.
A quantitative approach was taken using time series analysis and machine learning algorithms on network traffic data. Data preprocessing, feature extraction, and anomaly detection with essential methods were used. These results show that time series analysis can detect SYN Flood attacks accurately when applied to network traffic data.
These findings contribute to cybersecurity by providing a new method for the real-time detection of SYN Flood attacks. This method has practical implications for improving the safety of network systems in systems at risk of DDoS attacks.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Too Much Detail: Do not try to include everything related to the detail of your research in your abstract. Instead, choose to highlight the most critical points.
- Vague or Generalised Statements: Clear your research problem, how you conducted your research, and your findings. Avoid general statements that don’t offer too much to the reader.
- Not Adhering to Word Limits: Remember, if these guidelines are used within your institution, you should know how much word count is required for an abstract, usually 150 to 300 words.
- Lack of Structure: Ensure your abstract is logical and addresses the research’s objectives, methods, findings, and conclusions.
What is in Your Dissertation Abstract Final Checklist?
Before finalising your abstract, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the dissertation’s quantitative research question, methodology, findings, and conclusions get summarised within the abstract?
- Does it fit into that specified word limit?
- Did you put language to use that is clear and easy to understand, without any extra jargon?
- Does the abstract appear in the past tense, as though research has already been completed?
- Were you also following all the specific structure and formatting guidelines for the abstract given by your institution?
CONCLUSION
An effective dissertation abstracts must ensure that your research makes a first impression. In doing so, you’ll capture the essential parts of your work in short, easy-to-understand terms that readers will understand. If we follow these steps and tips, we will have a well-organised abstract that meets the institutional guidelines and conveys the meaning of our study. Your abstract can be the deciding factor in your Phd dissertation, so a well-written one guarantees that the rest of your research will be read.
