Learn How to Write a Science Fair Abstract

We use the term “an abstract” to refer to the brief version of one’s ultimate report written for a science fair. In most cases, it shouldn’t be longer than 250 words. Abstract of a project, presented on a scientific fair should not just precede the project’s text, but also appear on a display board.

According to the majority of engineers and scientists, all abstracts should include such pieces:

• An introduction. In it, you should describe the main purpose of doing your invention or a project for a science fair. Explain why people should care for your work. Can it change their business on a daily basis? Is your invention or a procedure you developed better, cheaper, or faster than the already existing ones? Your abstract should motivate the readers to finish reading it and then move to the entire written piece or to the display board.
• Statement of a problem serves for identifying the solved problem or a hypothesis investigated by you.
• Conducted procedures. What approach did you use to investigate the problem? There’s no need to provide the details and list all materials. The key variables can be described if there’s room left.
• Results of a project. What was the answer you obtained? Provide the actual numbers when describing the results. Avoid using indefinite terms such as “some” or most.
• State here what exactly your invention or project contributes to the whole area. For the science fair project, you should resume if you met the main objectives, for a project on engineering – whether the criteria of design were met.
  

How to Write a Science Abstract: Things You Should Avoid

When writing your scientific abstract, it’s best to avoid certain things, to make the piece understandable and interesting for your target audience. Do not include into your abstract:

• Technical nomenclature or jargon – the majority of your readers may not understand them.
• Acronyms or abbreviations that aren’t commonly used, unless their meaning is described.
• Citations or bibliography.
• Graphs and tables.
• In most cases, an abstract should keep in focus the research performed within the past 12 (or less) months; researches conducted earlier should be referred to as little as possible.
• Those who work with a mentor or a scientist should include only the procedures which they’ve done themselves; no other people should be acknowledged in an abstract.

Why Are Abstracts Important?

An abstract written for a scientific fair project will let people determine whether they’d like to read through the whole report. Expect only one-tenth of people to read the report till the end. The main principle here is similar to advertising. To make the audience and judges excited about your project, you should create an engaging and exciting abstract.

While a scientific abstract is very short, each of its sections usually is only 1-2 sentences long. Thus, each word you use should convey the key message. Use a thesaurus to find better equivalents for vague or boring words. Cut out the ones that don’t bring any important information. However, even the short length of the abstract shouldn’t stop you from reinforcing the main point: you can state it in several different ways or refer to it in several sections.

Tips to Meet the Limit of Words

From their own experience, many authors know that it’s harder to create a short written piece than a long one. Here is a pro tip: when writing your initial draft, concentrate on its contents rather than on the word count. Just remember to include all the important information. Next, read through the draft and cross out all sentences, phrases, and words that are not as important. Try to combine some sentences which is another way to make the text shorter. Finally, put the abstract aside, and return to editing it after a while – with the fresh eyes, it will be easier for you to find more phrases that can be cut out. That’s how you make your abstract concise, informative and convincing.

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