Some essential tips to write a good abstract for PhD thesis are explained below;

1) Getting your abstract started

It is a fact that an abstract of a PhD thesis is placed at the beginning of your thesis but you can’t write it before your thesis. Its reason is that an abstract is a brief summary of your thesis and in order to develop a brief summary of your PhD thesis, you will have to write it after finishing the PhD thesis writing task. 

There is also a possibility that your advisor will impose some requirements to write an abstract. Before writing the abstract, you should also get an idea about these requirements like the maximum and minimum length of abstract and style requirements of the abstract. The audience members of your PhD thesis are also very important before creating a monument of an abstract. For example, if you are going to publish your PhD thesis into a scientific journal, your abstract should be such that the audience members can easily get at your arguments quickly. 

There are different types of abstracts like descriptive abstracts, informative abstracts, basic information abstracts and critical abstracts. Before commencing the abstract writing task, you should also decide the type of your abstract.

2) Writing your abstract

To write an abstract is not an easy task like other preliminary pages of PhD thesis. To write an abstract there requires proper planning and outline. The first step to write an abstract is to identify your purpose. You can identify the purpose of your thesis by getting answers to the following questions;

A) How have you conducted your research?

B) What are your main findings?

C) What is the importance of your research and findings?

Secondly, you will have to explain the main problem of your PhD thesis in the abstract. This problem should consist of the main issue that you are going to address in your thesis. You can easily explain the problem of your research by finding the answers to the following questions;

A) What is the main problem of your research?

B) What is the possible solution for your research problem?

C) What is the scope of your research study?

D) What are the main claims of your thesis?

To write a PhD thesis, you will have to select a research methodology. Thirdly, it is also necessary for you to explain this research methodology in the abstract of your PhD thesis. At the end of your PhD thesis, you will have to drive some results and findings on the basis of your research. In the abstract, it is also necessary for you to provide an overview of these results and findings. At last, you will have to give a closing touch to your abstract by explaining the importance of your findings and results.

3) Formatting your abstract

Like other components of a PhD thesis, it is also necessary for you to take care of the formatting of the abstract of your thesis. Some essential tips about the formatting of your thesis are explained below;

A) In an abstract, you will have to provide answers to several questions. Therefore, you should try to keep these answers in order.

B) An abstract is not like a topic paragraph which is intentionally vague rather than an abstract provides relevant and authentic information relevant to your topic idea.

C) It is a fact that an abstract is a summary of your PhD thesis but there is no need to copy direct quotes from the body of your thesis and paste it into the abstract.

D) You should try to use some key phrases and words in your abstract. Its reason is that with the help of these key phrases and words, it is easy for the readers to search for your thesis.

E) You should use real information in your abstract. There is no need to discuss those points and results relevant to your topic that are not explained in your thesis.

F) You should try to avoid being too specific in the abstract of your PhD thesis. It means that there is no need to define specific terms and provide the locations in the abstract.

G) As we know that an abstract lasts the first impression on the minds of the students. Therefore, after completing the abstract writing task, you should be sure that your abstract is free from grammar and spelling mistakes. You should also make sure that it is properly structured and formatted.

H) After finalizing this essential piece of writing, you should also try to get feedback from someone else. Your advisor or any other faculty member is the best choice to get feedback on your abstract.

Conclusion

An abstract is a brief summary of your thesis. While writing an abstract, you should keep in mind some essential tips as you should clearly identify the purpose of your thesis in the abstract, you should explain the main problem of your thesis, you should explain the research methodology that you have adapted to gather the data for your thesis, you should briefly describe the results and main findings of your research and at last, you should conclude it. While writing an abstract, there is a possibility of some mistakes. Therefore, you should proofread and edit it just like a pro in order to remove all the mistakes from your abstract.