Laboratory Techniques I, CHY 114
Chemistry Department, University of Southern Maine

Printing and profanity are constant companions.
Aristotle

Writing an Abstract

Assignment

Read the syllabus page Guidelines for Reports, Abstracts, and Graphs. Pay particular attention to the guidelines for writing abstracts and the accompanying sample abstract.

Goal

To write an abstract for your most recent lab experiment.

You will write at least two abstracts this semester. Your instructor will tell you when to include an abstract for a report. You will have a chance to revise the first abstract until it meets all guidelines. The first abstract will be graded as a separate report. Subsequent abstracts will be graded as part of the accompanying report.

Overview

  • The steps listed below will guide you in gathering and organizing the information you need to write your abstract.

Gathering Information

  • Abstracts begin with a statement of the scientific goal of the experiment.
    --> Think about and write down what you learned from this experiment about the chemical system you studied. The things you learned will be the basis of your stated goal.
  • The heart of the abstract is a brief description, not a detailed procedure, of the main methods you used to reach your goal. Often, these methods are presented for the first time in the experiment (they are part of the educational goal of the experiment).
    --> Think about and make a list of the main (usually new) methods of the experiment. Review the new terms used to describe the equipment and lab operations. These terms are the vocabulary you need in order to write about the methods in a brief and general, but authoritative, way.
  • Chemists read and write about chemical substances.
    --> Think about the compounds you used or made in this experiment. Find and write down their chemical names and formulas. You will need to present them in order to be specific about the substances under study.
  • Abstracts end with presentation of the most important results of the experiment.
    --> Think about and write down the most important result(s) that you should report. For example, if you ran a series of reaction and determined the formula of the product and the yield, the formula and yield of the product are your most important results. If you made a measurement on an unknown, the measured value (along with the name of the unknown!) is the most important result. Unimportant information, which you should NOT include in the abstract, includes the amounts of reagents you used, the specific items of glassware employed, and intermediate results, like the amount of a substance you made and then subjected to another reaction.
  • Scientists qualify their important results with an assessment of accuracy or precision -- a means of stating reliability of the result.
    --> Think about what you can say about the accuracy or precision of your results. If you made repeated determinations, such as determining density with several samples of a substance, the mean and standard deviation of several determinations provides the needed assessment of precision. If you measured a widely known constant, such the mass of a mole of silver, a comparison of your result with the known mass provides the needed assessment of accuracy. If you are unsure about the difference between accuracy and precision, review the terms in your text.

With this information in hand, you are ready to write your abstract.

Getting to Know Your Word Processor

If you do not have a home computer or word processor, get to know the computers in the USM Computer Centers. Workers there will help you get started. Once you have started up a word processor and are faced with a blank document, use online help to learn how to carry out the following tasks.

  • Centering text for titles (the spacebar is NOT for centering!!)
  • Indenting for paragraphing and setting off equations or quoted material (the spacebar is NOT for indenting!!)
  • Subscripting and superscripting for writing chemical formulas
  • Cutting and pasting for reorganizing and revising
  • Checking spelling

Writing the Abstract

Now get down to it.

  • Write your first draft by simply pouring words out onto the paper. By now you know most of what needs to be in the abstract. Just start "talking" about it by writing down ideas as they occur to you. Don't edit as you go; don't even look back. With a word processor, you can change anything and fix errors later. Get your ideas on the page. The best way to avoid writer's block is to write down the first thing that occurs to you and just keep writing.
  • When you run out of ideas, start thinking about organization. Move your stated goal to the beginning, and your final results to the end. See how the whole thing reads. Does it move logically from one part to another? If not, cut, paste, add, subtract, so that it begins to make sense.
  • Compare your work with the sample abstract and the guidelines.
    • Are all the essential parts present?
    • When you mention specific substances, do you include their names and formulas?
    • When you mention chemical reactions, do you provide an equation?
    • Are there details you can omit and still be telling a coherent story?
    • Have you concluded with the most important results of your experiment? In the copper experiment, the most important result is your percent yield, along with your assessment of whether it is reasonable, and if not, a brief, plausible explanation of why it is higher or lower than expected.
  • Compose a compact, informative title. Yes, the title is one of the last things to write. Your are best qualified to write a title when you know what you've written. As you compose the title remember that you are reporting scientific, not educational, results.
  • Once you are convinced that your abstract meets all guidelines and gives a clear picture of what you set out to do, how you did it, and what you found out, run the spell-checker to make sure that misspellings and typos do not defeat your efforts to appear authoritative.
  • Finally, pretty it up. Center the title, with your name under it. Center equations. If there are natural breaks in the logic, separate blocks of text into paragraphs.
  • Print it on white paper. Clear the jammed paper or replace the empty ink cartridge. Print it again!
  • Be sure that you get full credit for all this hard work. Hand in the printed report ON TIME.
    NOTE: Instructors do not accept reports submitted by email or fax.
  • Until your instructor has a printed copy in hand, you have not turned in your report.

CHY114 Lab Manual