Outline. Academic skills: Abstract writing. (One) Aim of IGRA. The purpose of an abstract. Doreen Georgi. April 14, 2015

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1 Outline Academic skills: Abstract writing Doreen Georgi 1 Model abstracts 2 3 Structure of an abstract April 14, What else abstract writing may be good for Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 (One) Aim of IGRA The purpose of an abstract We want the IGRA students to give presentations at internationally renowned conferences on (formal) linguistics, in particular at annual conferences with a low acceptance rate. These include: GLOW, NELS, WCCFL, OCP,... (bi-)annual conferences on a specific subgroup of languages on a specific area of linguistics (e.g. Morphology/Syntax of the World s languages) on a particular framework (e.g. the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar) This presupposes that the IGRA students are able to write top-quality abstracts. The abstract is your research sales pitch (you want to sell your work to the reviewer) Thus, you need to convince the reviewer of the abstracts value. evaluation of: originality, clarity, soundness of argumentation, contribution to the field But you typically only have 1-2 pages to get across your message, show adequate knowledge of the relevant literature, and sound convincing, interesting, and original Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22

2 Model abstracts Model abstracts Model abstracts Sample abstracts from this year s GLOW The LSA s webpage provides model abstracts with annotations. They can be found here. Let us look more closely at one of them: Pullum & Zwicky phonol.: An Autosegmental Account of Tundra Nenets Glottal Stop morphology: A number of cases of pronominal suppletion syntax: Raising parameters Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 An abstract is anonymous (check document settings)! Adhere to the deadline! Strictly adhere to the formatting guidelines (font, font size, margins, etc.)! if you don t, this is a reason to reject the abstract, regardless of content! Your abstract should have an appealing layout. A sloppy layout gives the impression that you did not invest much time in it, i.e. that the conference is not very important to you. Check for typos! Show your abstract to someone before you submit it. Take enough time to write an abstract - it usually takes a day to write it and then you want to show it to someone else and have time to revise it accordingly. Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Structure of an abstract 1 (title) 2 introduction claim background information 3 body analysis proposal assumptions derivations consequences/predictions/discussion 4 conclusions 5 (references) The parts can explicitly be made visible by headlines (in boldface) Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22

3 Title Claim Think about a catchy title! Ideally, the title should contain the phenomenon and/or the main idea of the analysis. Always start an abstract with a summary of your main claim(s), the take-home message. I claim that... should contain: phenomenon and language(s) under discussion, what you argue for or against, core idea of your proposal, the problem(s) the proposal solves, advantages should not contain: data, details of the analysis, open issues, etc. should be short, not more than about 5 (short) sentences. most important part of the abstract you win or lose the reviewer s attention here! You have to convince him/her in this first paragraph that your work is interesting and relevant. Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Claim Background information Possible claims: new data allow us to distinguish between competing analyses of a phenomenon new data show that existing analyses of a phenomenon cannot be upheld existing analyses make wrong predictions provide a simpler, more elegant analysis of a phenomenon data provide evidence for a theoretical concept show that two constructions can be analysed along the same lines show that phenomenon X can be analysed in framework Y, contrary to previous claims... show the broader relevance of your topic/proposal embed it in the discussion about the topic introduce the core data say why it is theoretically interesting / what the challenge posed by the phenomenon is briefly summarize the previous literature about the topic (but don t write an essay about the history of linguistics!) cite the relevant literature say what your contribution to this discussion is should not be too long (about 15 lines of texts + data), but long enough to provide the reader (not necessarily an expert!) with enough background information to be able to follow the argumentation Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22

4 Body: analysis main part and thus the longest part of the abstract should contain (in subsections): the proposal / core idea of the analysis (without technical details) assumptions derivations Aim: show that you have a fully fledged analysis (and that you don t just promise to present some analysis!) Important: Provide enough details to make the proposal understandable for the reviewer; s/he must be able to follow the argumentation and see how the set of assumptions leads to the desired results. But do not present too many details (dozens of less important or standard assumptions, an attempt to explain every minor exception); restrict yourself to the core pattern and how your analysis resolves problems of previous accounts! Body The content of this part heavily depends on the conference you re submitting the abstract to. psycholinguistic conference: focus on the description of the experiment, the results and their interpretation, statistics,... typological conference: emphasis on the data, comparison to other languages, insights from these data,... Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Consequences/discussion Conclusions predictions of the account (could also be a part of the analysis) the bigger picture other issues that you think should briefly be mentioned, e.g repercussions of the proposal for some other aspect (related constructions, related phenomena, acquisition, processing,...) maybe: address open questions But don t just list problems - you are supposed to convince the reviewer by showing him/her what you can do and not what you cannot do! Show the reader that you are aware of potential objections and give them a hint of how you think these could be handled. summarize the main points of your abstract: claim, proposal, why is it relevant, general implications more or less the same as in the first paragraph (Claim) should be short, 3-4 lines there might not always be space for a whole paragraph, but the abstract should always end with a final concluding sentence containing the main contribution of the abstract Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22

5 References References can be omitted if there is no space left (and you really cannot delete anything else) but usually you should add at least selected references cite all the relevant work in the text! but give the bibliography entries of only some of the citations include less known literature, leave out the well-known papers Formatting: to safe space don t use the usual bib-layout with a line break after each entry just list the entries one after the other and highlight the borders between them (e.g. separated by a bullet) the references can be in a smaller font (e.g. footnotesize) than the one required for the main text use abbreviations: initials for first names, et al. in case there is more than one author or editor, leave out unnecessary information (e.g. eds., number of the journal, place of publication), use common abbreviations for journals (LI, NLLT, IJAL, etc.). Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 References Boeckx, Cedric (2003): Islands and chains: resumption as stranding. Linguistik aktuell (Linguistics today) Vol. 63, Benjamins, Amsterdam. Csúcs, Sándor (1988): Udmurt. In: D. Abondolo, ed., The Uralic Languages. Routledge, London, pp Epée, Roger (1976b): On Some Rules That Are Not Successive Cyclic in Duala, Linguistic Inquiry 7 (1), Heck, Fabian and Gereon Müller (2000): Successive Cyclicity, Long-Distance Superiority, and Local Optimization. In: R. Billerey and B. D. Lillehaugen, eds, Proceedings of WCCFL. Vol. 19, Cascadilla Press, Somerville, MA, pp In the abstract: Boeckx, C. (2003): Islands and chains: resumption as stranding. Benjamins. ˆ Csúcs, S. (1988): Udmurt. In: D. Abondolo, The Uralic Languages, ˆ Epée, R. (1976): On Some Rules That Are Not Successive Cyclic in Duala, LI 7. ˆ Heck, F. & G. Müller (2000): Successive Cyclicity, Long-Distance Superiority, and Local Optimization. In: R. Billerey et al., Proceedings of WCCFL 19, Context To some extent, the content and the form of your abstract also depend on the conference you want to send it to. Important questions you should ask yourself: What is the topic of the conference? a purely theoretical, a purely typological conference? influences the amount of data a conference on a specific language (family)? less background information on the languages a conference on a specific theoretical problem/framework? less theoretical background assumptions necessary Who is the addressee / who are the reviewers? The bigger the conference / the more general the topic of the conference, the more likely it is that at least some of the reviewers are not experts in your topic. Which areas are covered in the abstract (e.g. psycholinguistics and formal grammar)? reviewers from both areas Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22

6 Common mistakes What else might an abstract be good for?... in abstracts as well as papers: lack of clarity and focus: unstructured presentation of thoughts, no prioritizing of thoughts, too many abbreviations, too many assumptions,... lack of perspective/knowledge: no look outside at the broader picture: related phenomena, other languages, work on this topic in other frameworks, you re not aware of the fact that someone else has already made the same point,... lack of objectivity: Don t be self-righteous and convinced that you alone are correct. Talk about opposing theories and arguments, not about people! Avoid citing yourself! poor argumentation: Apply objective reasoning and empirical data to a set of premises/assumptions to yield conclusions be guided by data, not by your theoretical preference! Writing an abstract helps you structuring your thoughts: what is really important and what is just a side issue? Furthermore, it helps to boil a down a complex idea/analysis to its essential core. Therefore, it might also be the starting point for other writing activities: the handout for a talk and the corresponding paper can be based on the structure of the abstract PhD thesis: structure of the thesis and importance of ideas Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22 Doreen Georgi (Leipzig University, IGRA) Abstract writing April 14, / 22