Psychology expert kendra cherry is an author and educator with over a decade experience helping students make sense of psychology. She is the author of the everything psychology book 2nd edition and she has published thousands of articles on diverse topics in psychology including personality, social behavior, child therapy, research methods, and much more. The abstract is the second page of a lab report or apa format paper and should immediately follow the title page. The purpose of your abstract is to provide a brief yet thorough overview of your paper.

The apa publication manual suggests that your abstract should function much like your title page – it should allow the person reading it to quickly determine what your paper is all about. Continue reading below the apa manual also states that the abstract is the single most important paragraph in your entire paper. It is the first thing that most people will read and it is usually what informs their decision to read the rest of your paper. According to the official guidelines of the american psychological association, a good abstract should be: brief but packed with information. each sentence must be written with maximum impact in mind.

To keep your abstract short, focus on including just four or five of the most essential points, concepts, or findings. objective and accurate. the abstract 39 s purpose is to report rather than provide commentary.

first, write your paper.

begin your abstract on a new page

continue reading below

keep it short.

If you are writing your paper for a psychology course, your professor may have specific word requirements so be sure to ask. In order to succinctly describe your entire paper, you will need to determine which elements are the most important. structure the abstract in the same order as your paper. begin with a brief summary of the introduction. look at other abstracts in professional journals for examples of how to summarize your paper. notice the main points that the authors chose to mention in the abstract. write a rough draft of your abstract. while you should aim for brevity, be careful not to make your summary too short.

Sometimes having someone look at your abstract with fresh eyes can provide perspective and help you spot possible typos and other errors.

the format of your abstract will also depend of the type of paper you are writing. For example, an abstract summarizing an experimental paper will differ from that of a meta analysis or case study. I heard that the newest apa book was full of major errors and i don 39 t know when or if that has been fixed. 34 the sixth edition apa manual suggests that an abstract be between 150 and 250 words. However, they note that the exact requirements vary from one journal to the next. If you are writing the abstract for a class, you might want to check with your instructor to see if he or she has a specific word count in mind.

Psychology papers such as lab reports and apa format articles often require an abstract. The abstract should include all of the major elements of your paper, including an introduction, hypothesis, methods, results, and discussion. Although the abstract should be placed at the beginning of your paper right after the title page , you will write the abstract last, after you have completed a final draft of your paper.