An abstract is a brief summary of a student(s) research project. Reading of the abstracts by the colloquium attendees assists the attendees in deciding which presentations they will attend. Abstracts must be reviewed and approved by the Faculty Sponsor prior to the online submission of the abstract by the student. The SRC Committee will not proofread abstracts.
Abstracts will be published in the Colloquium Proceedings online. If your abstract requires unique characters or italicizing, please enter the abstract and then contact email@example.com regarding the required changes.
By participating in the Student Research Colloquium, it is understood that photos of you and your research may be used in various publications. If you do not want to be included in any publications, please email the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
An abstract is a brief summary of your work. "A well prepared abstract enables readers to identify the basic content of a document [or project] quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether they need to read the document [or project] in its entirety" (American National Standards Institute, 1979). Abstracts should state the objectives of the project, describe the methods used, summarize the significant findings, and state the implications of the findings (Day, 1988).
Your abstract will be published in the colloquium proceedings. Abstracts allow the Student Research Colloquium audience to decide which posters, papers, and performances/creative works hold the most interest for them. Be sure to proofread your abstract carefully for spelling and grammatical errors. Reading it aloud will also help catch errors that you might otherwise miss.
The staff at the Write Place are an excellent resource to use for reviewing your abstract!
Submitted abstracts must be reviewed and approved by faculty sponsors. The Student Research Colloquium Committee will not proofread abstracts.
Abstracts must be no fewer than 100 words and no more than 300 words. Limit your abstract to text only; figures will not be reproduced in the colloquium proceedings. Also, when you enter your abstract online, please do not include paragraph indention.
Write in past tense. Spell out acronyms the first time they are used. For example, write "American National Standards Institute" rather than "ANSI." Provide definitions for terms. For example, write, "Positron Emission Tomography is an imaging technique that uses radioactive tracers to map the metabolism of chemicals in the brain; the more active an area of the brain, the greater the metabolic activity in that area." rather than, "We used PET to measure the uptake of radioactive tracers to map brain function."
Write clearly and simply. Avoid verbosity and jargon. Emphasize the important details of your project. Abstracts are a "road map" to help interested persons navigate your paper/poster/performance/creative work presentation. Avoid extraneous and unnecessary words.
Everything mentioned in the abstract should be a summary of what is mentioned in the presentation. Topics not mentioned in the presentation should not appear in the abstract.
Consider your audience. Colloquium attendees may or may not share your area of expertise and knowledge.