An APA abstract is a brief but thorough summary of a scientific paper. It gives readers a clear overview of what the paper is about and what it intends to prove.
The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to quickly understand the paper's topic and purpose so they can decide whether it will be useful to them.
APA style is a method of formatting and documentation used by the American Psychological Association. This style is used primarily for papers in the field of education and in the social sciences, including:
Writing an abstract in APA format requires you to conform to the writing rules for APA-style papers, including the following guidelines:
While the rules for constructing an APA abstract are straightforward, the process can be challenging. You need to pack a great deal of relevant content into a short piece.
The essential elements of an APA abstract are:
When you’re creating your APA abstract, consider the following questions.
The most important information to convey in the abstract is the paper's primary objective, hypothesis, or research questions. Keep in mind the abstract will be the reader's introduction to your paper.
People searching for research on your topic will probably be browsing many papers and studies. The way your abstract is crafted will help to determine whether they feel your paper is worth reading.
Potential readers want to know about the research methods you used. A key research question is whether you used quantitative or qualitative methods (or a combination).
Quantitative research is focused on numbers and statistics, typically gathered from studies and polls where the questions are in yes/no or multiple-choice format.
Qualitative research is based on language and gathered using methods such as interviews and focus groups. It is more detailed and time-consuming to gather than quantitative research but can yield more complex and nuanced results.
Another key element is whether your research is based on primary or secondary sources.
Primary research is data that you or your research team gathered. Secondary research is gathered from existing sources, such as databases or previously published studies.
Your research may be descriptive, experimental, or both.
With descriptive research, you’re describing or analyzing existing studies or theories on the topic. You may be using surveys, case studies, or observation to study the topic.
Experimental research studies variables using the scientific method. With an experiment, your objective is to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables (or show the lack of one).
Readers will want to know upfront what your paper is claiming or proving. Your APA abstract should give them a condensed version of your conclusions. Summarize your most significant findings.
It's customary to place your findings and conclusion in the final sentence of the abstract. This should be directly related to the main topic of the paper.
Show readers that your paper is a significant contribution to the field. While staying accurate and not overstating your case, boast a bit about why people need to read your paper.
Briefly describe the implications and importance of your findings. You can also point out any further research that is needed concerning this topic.
Including keywords is useful for indexing if your paper is eventually included in a database. Choose keywords that are relevant to the paper and as specific as possible.
For example, if your paper is about signs of learning disabilities in elementary-age children, your keyword list might include:
There are certain variations in different types of APA abstracts. Here are three of the most common ones.
An abstract for an experimental or lab report needs to communicate the key purpose and findings of the experiment. Include the following:
A literature review is a survey of published work on a work of literature. It may be part of a thesis, dissertation, or research paper.
The abstract for a literature review should contain:
Psychology lab reports are part of the experiment report category. Psychology experiments, however, may contain distinctive elements.
As this section is 250 words maximum, it's important to know what should not be included.
Avoid the following in an APA abstract:
While an abstract is the shortest section of your paper, it is nevertheless one of the most important parts. It determines whether or not someone decides that the paper is worth reading or not. What follows are some guidelines to keep in mind when creating your APA abstract.
APA style is commonly used in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and education.
If you’re writing an abstract in APA style, there are certain conventions to follow. Your readers and people in your industry will expect you to adhere to particular elements of layout, content, and structure.
Follow our advice in this article, and you will be confident that your APA abstract complies with the expected standards and will encourage people to read your full paper.
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