Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Typical structure of the Abstract
The Abstract typically aims to provide an overview of the study which
answers the following questions:
●
What was the general purpose of the study?
●
What was the particular aim of the study?
●
Why was the study carried out?
Chapter 11
Writing the Abstract and
Acknowledgements

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●
How was the study carried out?
●
What did the study reveal?
The typical structure of an Abstract, then, is:
●
overview of the study;
●
aim of the study;
●
reason for the study
●
methodology used in the study;
●
findings of the study.
It is not always the case, however, that these will come in this order, as can be
seen in the Abstract shown in Box 11.1. It may also be the case that they are
not as neatly separated as they are in this text. These are, however, areas that
are typically covered in a thesis or dissertation Abstract.
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Writing  the Abstract  and Acknowledgements
Box 11.1 Analysis of a PhD thesis abstract
Newspaper commentaries on terrorism:
A contrastive genre study
Abstract
Overview of 
This thesis is a contrastive genre study which 
the study
explores newspaper commentaries on terrorism in 
Chinese and Australian newspapers. The study 
examines the textual patterning of the Australian and
Chinese commentaries, interpersonal and intertextual
features of the texts as well as considers possible
contextual factors which contribute to the formation 
of the newspaper commentaries in the two different 
languages and cultures.
Methodology 
For its framework for analysis, the study draws on 
used in the 
systemic functional linguistics, English for specific 
study
purposes and new rhetoric genre studies, critical 
discourse analysis, and discussions of the role of the 
mass media in the two different cultures.
Findings of 
The study reveals that Chinese writers often use 
the study
explanatory rather than argumentative expositions in 
their newspaper commentaries. They seem to distance
themselves from outside sources and seldom indicate 
endorsement to these sources. Australian writers, 
on the other hand, predominantly use argumentative 
expositions to argue their points of view.

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Writing  the Abstract  and Acknowledgements
157
They integrate and manipulate outside sources in 
various ways to establish and provide support for the
views they express. These textual and intertextual 
practices are closely related to contextual factors, 
especially the roles of the media and opinion 
discourse in contemporary China and Australia.
Aim of the study
The study, thus, aims to provide both a textual and 
contextual view of the genre under investigation in 
these two languages and cultures.
Reason for 
In doing so, it aims to establish a framework for 
the study
contrastive rhetoric research which moves beyond 
the text into the context of production and 
interpretation of the text as a way of exploring 
reasons forlinguistic and rhetorical choices made in
the two sets of texts.
Source: based on Wang 2006