Mary E. Brown, Ph.D., Professor
Information Science

Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515

Department of Information and Library Science
Fax: 1.203.392-5780 / Phone: 1.203.392-5781
Toll Free: 1-888-500-SCSU, then press 4

For this class, we are interested in the distinction between the informative abstract and the indicative abstract.

An informative abstract is a concise summary of the longer work it abstracts. The informative abstract can stand in for the longer work in terms of telling the reader what points the longer work actually makes. That is, it is a mini version of the work and contains the essence of the information conveyed in the longer work. For example, an informative abstract for a research paper would include, in 100-150 words: the problem under investigation, in one sentence if possible; the subjects, specifying pertinent characteristics, such as number, type, age, sex; the experimental method, including the data-gathering procedure; the findings, including statistical significance levels; conclusions and the implications or applications.

An indicative abstract indicates what kind(s) of information is contained in the longer work, but it does not tell you the essence of that information.

A mixed abstract contains elements of both the informative and indicative abstracts. Generally, for this class, a mixed abstract is written by students who fail to understand or execute the distinctions between an indicative and informative abstract.

Assume researchers found and documented the existence and location of the legendary Fountain of Youth. An indicative abstract might read Researchers describe how they found the Fountain of Youth and give exact directions for reaching it. An informative abstract might read Researchers describe finding of a bottle on the East Shores of Indiana and the dating and verification process used to determine the authenticity of the paper inside that gave the location of the legendary Fountain of Youth. The Fountain was located and its power to rejuvenate was verified. Researcher report that the Fountain is located at 8 Youth Way in Far East Shore, Indiana.. A mixed abstract might read Researchers describe finding of a bottle on the East Shores of Indiana and the dating and verification process used to determine the authenticity of the paper inside giving the location of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Researchers give the address and exact directions for the Fountain and report on whether it actually has rejuvenating powers.

A few resources:

• Abstract - definition (Purdue)
• Writing Abstracts (Colorado State)
• Writing an Abstract (George Mason)