Write Winning Abstracts
Copyright 2002 by Toni McConnel
The purpose of an abstract is to SELL an idea. You should put the same creative and perfectionist effort into it that you put into writing ad copy. You need to CONVINCE the editor that the technology described in the proposed article is technology that his/her readers MUST know about if they are to stay on top of things in that particular field. This underpinning of selling the idea is missing from most of the abstracts I see. I seldom get the feeling that the writer is enthusiastic about the idea. If you aren't enthusiastic about it, why should the editor care?
The lead paragraph of your abstract may well turn out to be the lead paragraph of your story. Since most technical articles follow a problem/solution format in one way or another, define the problem that this technology solves in the first paragraph, and state briefly what the technology is that has provided a solution -- NOT your company’s product, but the TECHNOLOGY behind your product.
From there, tell the editor what kind of article you are proposing: a customer application story, a how-we-did-it story, a comparison of this technology to other approaches, or whatever. Then state the main points you intend to make in the story, usually with one sentence for each point. Even when people get the first paragraph right, these two points are where most of the abstracts I see fail miserably. Finally, unless it is otherwise obvious, tell the editor why this story is of interest to his/her readership -- here's where the enthusiasm comes in again.
A well-written abstract makes an outline unnecessary; it will contain all the same information a good outline contains. Here's an example of a well-written abstract:
The following abstract for a proposed contributed article was submitted to EETimes Embedded and Net-Centric editor Bernie Cole by LVL7 Systems, Inc., makers of FASTPATH™ software, and was accepted. Note how it fulfills the guidelines set out above.
Optimization in Net-Centric Device Design
With the growth in the Internet and the increasing availability of network based devices and net-centric computing, there is an increasing desire to utilize these devices in a distributed manner and share information across them. However, such a desire results in a number of challenges with respect to how the devices will communicate, the impact of these devices on the overall network and how these devices will address the ever changing networking landscape. When you say "devices", are you referring to network processors and ASICs, or are you using the term in a broader sense?
The Engineering Problem
When developing devices that will utilize distributed net-centric computing there are a number of issues that need to be considered to ensure the device interoperates well within the network, as well as being flexible enough to handle tomorrow's needs.
Solving interoperability and network performance issues
Standards based protocols to help ensure interoperability across devices and communication systems
Utilize new and emerging protocols to help optimize device connectivity
Multicast protocols
Quality of Service / bandwidth reservation issuesSolving the System Architecture Issues
System performance optimization
Scalability
Testing and verification
Enabling new services based on market and customer needsAdapting to the ever changing landscape of network computing
How to build flexibility and portability into long term product development strategies
The risks of short sightedness
How flexibility in the software helps manage hardware investments
Allowing for additional functionality and ease of customization resulting in value added differentiation
This abstract is reproduced here with
the permission of
LVL7 Systems,
Inc., makers of FASTPATH™ software.
Toni McConnel
602-288-6749