What is an Abstract?
An abstract is a summary of your 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.
When?
- Write the English abstract after your advisor has approved the Finnish abstract.
- Linguistic research, writing the text, and editing the language and style may take up more time than you expect – anything between 3 and 8 hours.
You can write the abstract on your own, or attend an abstract writing workshop.
- Send the whole thesis/report to the designated English instructor for language check 10 days before the final deadline
What is 'Opinnäytetyö' in English?
AMK
- 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
- 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
Form
Write the abstract into the table on the third page of the report template.
Title
- Short, clear, informative and interesting
- Don’t translate the original title word for word, but express it clearly in plain English
- Write the English Title in Title Case. Metropolia house style: All Words in Upper Case, Except Articles, Conjunctions and Prepositions
Advisors
- Advisor's Name, Academic Title or Job Title (or both), e.g.,
Heikki Heikkilä, M.A.
Marja Marjanen, D.Mus.
Body of the Abstract
- 250 – 300 words, including articles and prepositions
- 4 - 5 paragraphs with a blank line between them
- Do not indent the first line of the paragraph
Content
- Introduction: Who has done what?
- Methodology: When, where and how was the study or project carried out?
- Results and conclusions: What did you learn during the process?
- Discussion: Why is the research topic or project important? Who might benefit from the results of your work? What should be done next?
Language and Style
Language Help
- Finnish-English Dictionary (Tuubi - MOT sanakirjasto, link on the left)
- Specialist dictionaries and glossaries (e.g. A Glossary of Video Editing Terms)
- Collocations dictionaries (which adjectives, nouns, verbs and prepositions can be matched together?)
Oxford Collocations Dictionary - Monolingual dictionaries (definitions and grammar)
The Free Dictionary - Google expressions "in quotations marks" and see if the expression is used in relevant and reliable contexts.
Write the abstract
- in the first person (My thesis investigates... My final project is a...) or
- in the third person (The author studied... The author carried out a survey...)
The text should be
- formal, but the sentences should be short and simple
- accessible (easy to read)
- cohesive (ideas are logically connected)
Check spelling and grammar
- MS Word 2010:
Review / Language / Set Proofing Language
Review / Spelling and Grammar
Final Touches
- Send the whole report/thesis to your designated English instructor as Word document (not a pdf).
- When you get the instructor’s comments, edit the text and send it back to her once more for final approval.