Assignment #3: Tools to Assist you in Writing an Abstract

Assignment #3 - Write an Abstract, Use NILC Tools

An abstract summarizes the major aspects of a scientific manuscript. Each component of the abstract may match a section in the manuscript

1. Introduction/Background
1. Problem definition
2. Previous approaches
3. Critique (“Gap”): what is new?
4. Purpose: why you/anyone still needs to work on this?
2. Methods and Materials
3. Results and Discussion
4. Conclusions
1. What has been done
2. Future work: what hasn’t been done

For this assignment, you will write an abstract for a paper describing your research. Your assignment should include

1. The title 
2. The area of expertise or department, e.g., Molecular Biology
3. Your ORIGINAL abstract
4. Your abstract with your own annotations for the different components
5. Using Scipo-Farmacia to assist you in the writing process
6. The abstract with the annotations generated by MAZEA-Web

What to do?

1. Create a template to mark each component that make up the abstract. Use the listing above as a guide.
2. Write the text for each component.
3. Your text must not exceed 200 words. 
4. Consider the "balance" among the components to make sure your text describes your work to the best of your ability.
5. Write a title for your abstract.
6. Check your abstract for coherence.
7. Annotate the specific expressions for each component in your template, when writing your own text.

Using Scipo-Farmacia

SciPo-Farmacia is a web-based tool developed to assist non-native English speakers (mainly Brazilians) in their scientific writing. The goal is to help them write papers using a top-down approach – starting from an outline and down to paragraphs and sentences.

Link to Scipo-Farmacia: http://www.nilc.icmc.usp.br/scipo-farmacia/

1. Open Scipo-Farmacia
2. Select Abstract (Resumo)
3. Observe the model for the abstract: components and strategies
4. Select some strategies, components
5. Extract examples from the database
6. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with your abstract
7. Save your text

Using MAZEA-Web

MAZEA-Web is a tool for identification of the components of an abstract. It uses 6 of them: Background, Gap, Purpose, Methods, Results, Conclusion. MAZEA-Web, is capable of automatically detecting the rhetorical structure of an abstract. In other words, MAZEA-WEB identifies text segments that have a specific rhetorical function, such as “indicating the purpose” or “indicating a gap,”. This process can help the writer improve his/her abstract by eliciting its rhetorical structure in order to expose any missing components.

Link to MAZEA-Web: http://www.nilc.icmc.usp.br/mazea-web/

1. Edit your abstract by removing all the components you manually annotated in the text.
2. Save a copy of the text in your assignment file.
3. Submit your original text (without any component markers) to MAZEA-WEB.
4. Make sure you select one of the two areas (Life Sciences vs. Physical and Engineering)
5. Copy the results that MAZEA-WEB gives you to your assignment file.

What to submit?

Your assignment must be submitted as a text file. 

• Name the file as follows: "assignment_3_yourfirstname.txt" (or ".rtf", or ".doc"/".docx" if you use Word), where yourfirstname is indeed your first name. 
• Write the title of the assignment in your file, include your name and date. 

Include ALL your work:

1. The title 
2. The area of expertise or department, e.g., Computer Science
3. Your ORIGINAL abstract
4. Your abstract with your own annotations for the different components
5. The abstract with the annotations generated by MAZEA-WEB