# 7. Writing the abstract

Only after you have fully completed writing your conclusion and discussion section, you can begin to write the abstract. The abstract is a brief summary of your thesis that contains all essential elements. The way abstracts are written differs between social science disciplines. A useful guide is posted at the Writing Center webpage of the University of Wisconsin, http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/presentations_abstracts.html.

Base your abstract on a recent article in one of the top journals in your field. Locate the top journals by looking at citation scores and impact factors. A fairly universal structure for your abstract answers the following questions (adapted from Pierson, 2004):

1. What is your question?
2. Why did you start?
3. What did you do?
4. How did you do it?
5. What did you find?
6. What does it mean?

In case you are required to submit an abstract of your research to start the project, write the abstract such that it describes:

1.The research question;

2a. The societal and scientific relevance of the question and potential answers to the question;

2b. The theories used (#1 above);

2c. The hypotheses that you would like to test;

3+4. The research design used to test the hypotheses;

5. The results;

6. The implications of the findings for relevant theories and potential policy implications.