Goal Two: Describe Research Intention

Describing your Study Focus, Describing Study Purpose and Describing Study Intentions is a common component of an Abstract. Realizing this Goal will help the readers to have an immediate grasp of what the study is about and what the exact intentions of your study are. Depending on the space available for your Abstract, you can either have a separate sentence devoted to the study intention or merge the intention with study methods.

It would be helpful to clarify some points about the first two goals in the Abstracts here. The two goals are usually the opening sentences of an Abstract. Sometimes, authors start with the statement of purpose or adjective. However, if the purpose is to start with a brief background, then they might start with the description of real-world phenomenon or standard practice, researchers’ actions such as in “ We analyze corporate taxation returns…”, and/or a problem or uncertainty in the area of research (Swales & Feak, 2009; p. 10). Ultimately, it depends on the conventions of your field and your topic of research which to choose. 

As we stated above, it may be typical to start an Abstract with describing the research intention right away. For example, in the opening section of the Abstract below, you can see that the authors have started the sample with the purpose and objective statement:

“The object of this study was to evaluate postpartum IN women for psychiatric symptomatology including cognitive disturbances, anxiety, depression, and anger to better meet their needs for support and involve them in the care of their infants. We interviewed 52 postpartum mothers at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center within 5 days of delivery…” (example borrowed from Swales & Feak, 2009, p. 9). 

• What words did help you identify the purpose? 
• What verb tense is used to state the purpose?