Why is an abstract so important?

Help readers decide if they should read an entire article

Help readers and researchers remember key findings on a topic

Help readers understand the text by outlining key points prior to reading the full document

Index articles for quick recovery and cross-referencing

What are the key elements that should be included?

Background: A simple opening sentence or two placing the work in context.

Aims: One or two sentences giving the purpose of the work.

Method(s): One or two sentences explaining what was (or will) be done.

Results: One or two sentences indicating the main findings (or what you hope to accomplish with the project).

Conclusions: One sentence giving the most important consequence of the work – what do the results mean? How will they be used?

Questions an abstract should answer:

Why did you do this study or project? (Or why are you undertaking the project/study?)

What did you do, and how? (What will you do? How?)

What did you find? (What do you expect to find?)

What do the findings mean?

Helpful tips when writing an abstract:

Reread your article or proposal with the goal of abstracting in mind.

Look specifically for these main parts of the article or proposal: purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions and recommendations.

Use the headings and table of contents as a guide to writing your abstract.

After you've finished rereading the article or proposal, write a rough draft without looking back at what you're abstracting.

Don't merely copy key sentences – you'll put in too much or too little information.

Don't rely on the way material was phrased – summarize information in a new way.

Revise your rough draft to:

Correct weaknesses in organization

Improve transitions from point to point

Drop unnecessary information

Make sure it is complete and accurate

Eliminate wordiness

Fix errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation

Unit 2-20. ENGLISH LINGUA FRANCA IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Guidelines for extensive reading of ESP texts on the use of English for European business

In modern business network interacion, individuals often speak different languages and illustrate diverse cultural realities. As the clash of civilizations has an effect on the costs of doing business in international contexts, intercultural business communication has attracted more and more interest as an academic domain. In the course of the past decade, communication between speakers of different languages has increased exponentially in the business world. More and more business organisations are now characterised by a multi-cultural, multi-lingual workforce, and numerous organisations now communicate with stakeholders in different countries. In such situations in international business communication, whenever person A with first language A, speaks to person B with first language B, then there are quite a few options available in terms of the language that they will prefer. Doing business in the global market depends on the ability to successfully communicate in an intercultural context. Due to the complexity of human beings, our cultural values are transferred to the communicative process; in other words, in cross-cultural encounters, each business partner filters the message through some layers of culture. Consequently, this circumstance determines the success of the business endeavour.

Anne Kankaanranta’s main research interests include the use of English as a business lingua franca and email genres in business communication. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Communication and has published in e.g., Business Communication Quarterly and English for Specific Purposes.