What is an Abstract?
An abstract is a short version summary of your Bachelor’s Thesis. The purpose is to give the reader a quick identification of its basic content. It is placed next to the title page and after the Finnish abstract. Writing the English abstract is usually the last task in the Thesis writing process. The abstract is an indication of the quality of your Thesis. The impressions drawn from the abstract greatly impact the reader so that they may decide whether to read your Thesis in its entirety or not. It should “stand on its own” and be a self-contained document. There should be no need to look elsewhere in your Thesis for an understanding of what is said in the abstract. Students do not often recognize the importance of the abstract and thus do not spend the required time in order to produce a well defined text.
Content and Organisation
Do not translate your Finnish title, tiivistelmä or johdanto word for word. Pay a special attention to how you interpret the Finnish title into English. Make it no longer than ten words. Express the objectives and methods clearly, along with the results and / or recommendations. Do not include exact results, figures or other accurate details. For easy reading, write your text in 4 short paragraphs. They should describe the following information:
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final project report or thesis.
The English abstract doesn’t need to be a direct translation of the Finnish one. The main thing is that the abstract
- informative but concise
- clear and logical
- easy to read.
What is an 'Opinnäytetyö' in English?
AMK - Bachelor's degree
- final project (report)
your study includes an artistic or a development project and a written report reflecting on the process and the results - a Bachelor's thesis
a dissertation reporting on and discussing the results of original research and substantiating a specific view.
YAMK - Master's degree
- a research and development project (report)
your study includes an artistic or a development project and a written report reflecting on the process and the results - a Master's thesis
a dissertation reporting on and discussing the results of original research and substantiating a specific view.
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Length
The abstract should be very concise – the maximum length being 50% of one page (outside of the header formatting and keywords line). This means you will need to economize your use of words and tie ideas together. Use the most precise and relevant words to best express the content of the abstract. Abstracts that are too long will have to be re-written. The length is 300 words.
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