This post is part of my series on writing accessible abstracts. A well-written abstract or research statement is one key strategy to help your research reach a broader audience.
To write a dynamic, specific, and accessible abstract, start by inspecting your verbs.
First, highlight every verb you use, and identify which subject it goes with. Download a handout below which provides you with tools to assess each verb in your abstract. It guides you to ask four key questions:
- Is this verb precise enough?
- Will a reader understand this subject-verb pairing?
- How many times have I used “is” or “are” as my main verb?
- How many verbs does each sentence contain?
This handout is full of examples to illustrate these four simple steps.
I. Verb Precision
It is easiest to be precise at the end of a project, when your draft has fulfilled all the promises your proposal made: to investigate, analyze, examine, etc. Vague verbs are often left over from your initial intuitions, when you had a plan for your work but had not yet articulated your conclusions or discovered your findings. Aim to make your abstract as precise as possible by reporting your process and your findings with specific, concrete verbs.
II. Subject-Verb Pairings
Can an atom waltz? Can a novel spill? Can a risotto flop?
When the subjects of our sentences are concrete nouns, it is simple to evaluate whether a subject-verb pairing works. It’s relatively easy to spot and appreciate metaphor and figurative language. We assess pairings in light of their contexts, say, in a children’s book versus an instruction manual.
Academic work talks a lot about ideas: abstract nouns like “social movement,” “research literature,” “ethical framework,” “historical period,” “theoretical modeling,” or “institutional change.” It is more difficult to determine what these abstract ideas can do or be. We might be stumped by questions about how they can act on other abstract ideas. Can they emerge? affect? contain? suggest? justify? expedite?
III. “To Be” Verbs
A vast number of long academic sentences hinge on the verb “is” or “are.” Sometimes using the “to be” verbs are unavoidable: categorizing, labeling, describing, and connecting are all key parts of our scholarship. But often “is” conceals other actions. Any time you can replace it with better, precise verbs, do it!
IV. Number of Verbs in a Sentence
The core of your sentence is its main subject-verb pairing. But in complex sentences, other verbs are lurking. Each verb could be the foundation of its own sentence. So if you put them all in one sentence, you need a good reason for this choice. Be sure the main pairing is the one you want to emphasize–the one that expresses your key point.
