Writing Your Student Showcase Abstract
An abstract gives an overview of the project and, in part, serves as a means of communicating why a project will be of interest to the audience. Because the event is open to the entire campus and the general public, discipline-specific terms, symbols, and abbreviations should be limited only to that which is meaningful to the project. Please use highly technical language very sparingly.
Abstract content may vary by the type of project. For more ideas on what a successful abstract includes, read some examples of previous Showcase abstract examples in various disciplines. Please limit your abstract to 200 words.
It is expected that your Showcase abstract will be a summary of your own work, or work done in collaboration with your peers/co-presenters, or work done with your faculty mentor. Your faculty sponsor (or mentor) should guide you in developing the abstract and answer questions on what to include for a specific discipline. As your Student Showcase abstract will be published and distributed on campus, it is important that you carefully check it for correct spelling and grammar. Your faculty sponsor must review, proof, and approve your abstract before you submit it.
You will submit your abstract electronically as part of the online application.
For more information about project requirements by category, including criteria for evaluation (rubrics) see : http://www.coloradomesa.edu/showcase/Requirements.html
What is an Abstract?
An abstract highlights major points of a project's content, and also generally includes the following information: the work's importance and purpose, the methods used, and any key results or conclusions. It provides sufficient information for a reader to decide if she or he is interested in learning more about the project. As mentioned previously, please limit your abstract to 200 words.
Successful abstracts may answer some of the following questions:
- What question is the project attempting to answer?
- What was the motivation to work on this project?
- What background information does a reader need to fully understand the work?
- What points best summarize the research, demonstration, exhibit or performance?
- What results, conclusions, or final product will the presenter share?
- What are the larger implications or significance of the project?
- Who is the intended audience for the project?