Week Eight

1. Introduction

Together with a report or an academic essay you usually have to submit an abstract. The aim of abstract is to summarise the information from report, article or paper. This week we will look at content of an abstract and try to write one.

Outcomes:
After this unit you should be able to:
- understand an abstract,
- write an abstract.

2. Tasks and Dates

This unit consists of five activities. In the first activity you will discuss what abstract is. Then you will try to identify its part and look at some useful questions that help you to include the necessary in formation. After that you will read an abstract and try to indentify its parts. Finally, you will try to write an abstract yourself. 

3. Activity One

Now we will talk about an abstract for a while. 

Think about the folowing questions:

1. What is an abstract?
2. When do you write it? Give more examples. 

Post your answers to FORUM 8.1

After that watch the below video and compare your answers with the suggestion mentioned in the recording. Post your commnest to FORUM 8.1. as well.

4. Activity Two

This activity is a listening activity. First, listen to the descriptions of abstracts below and match them with the correct heading.

abstract.mp3
____ Descriptive Abstracts
____ Informative Abstracts

Then listen to the same recording again and decide whether the statements are true or false.

abstract_2.mp3
Both types of abstracts tell readers about the content of the report and include the purpose, methods and scope of the report. T x F
Descriptive abstracts provide results and are more than 100 words long. T x F
Informative abstracts state conclusions, recommendations, and results. They are much longer than descriptive abstracts. T x F

Now you can check your answers by completing QUIZ 8.2

5. Activity Three

The aim of this activity is to identify the content of an abstract.

Read the information below. Match the parts of an abstract on the left with questions on the right.

Problem statement, Conclusion, Results, Motivation, Approach

1) ______________________:                      Why are we interested in the problem and the results?

2) ______________________:                      What problem are you trying to solve?

3) ______________________:                      How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem?

4) ______________________:                      What's the answer to the problem?

5) ______________________:                      What are your suggestions?

After finishing, check you answers in QUIZ 8.3

6. Activity Four

Now read the abstract below. In the text, find answers for the questions below. Underline them in the text.

• Why are we interested in the problem and the results?
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem?
• What's the answer to the problem? 
• What are your suggestions?

Laryngoscopy is a medical procedure that provides a secure airway by passing a breathing tube through the mouth and into the lungs of a patient. The ability to successfully perform laryngoscopy is highly dependent on operator skill; experienced physicians have failure rates of 0.1% or less, while less experienced paramedics may have failure rates of 10-33%, which can lead to death or brain injury. Accordingly, there is a need for improved training methods, and virtual reality technology holds promise for this application. The immediate objective of this research project is to measure the mechanics of laryngoscopy, so that an advanced training mannequin can be developed. This summer an instrumented laryngoscope has been developed which uses a 6-axis force/torque sensor and a magnetic position/orientation sensor to quantify the interactions between the laryngoscope and the patient. Experienced physicians as well as residents in training have used this device on an existing mannequin, and the force and motion trajectories have been visualized in 3D. One objective is to use comparisons between expert and novice users to identify the critical skill components necessary for physicians, to identify the mechanical properties of the human anatomy that effect laryngoscopy, and thus enable the development of a realistic training simulator. In the future an advanced training mannequin will be developed whose physical properties will be based on our sensor measurements, and where virtual reality tools will be used to provide training feedback for novice users.

(Research.berkley, 2012)

When you have finished, check your answers in QUIZ 8.4

7. Activity Five

To compete this activiry, you will have to use the report from Week Seven. Read your report again and write an abstract. You should write between 150 and 200 words.
Submit your answers to ABSTRACT 8.5