abstract

An abstract is a brief version of a longer piece of writing that emphasizes the major points and describes the content of the writing.
 * Information and Instructions for Writing an Abstract**
 * I. What is an Abstract?**

Tells readers what information is contained in the longer paper. Includes the purpose of the paper. Does not provide the conclusions or results given in the paper. Introduces the subject to the reader who will then read the longer paper to find out the details.
 * II. A Descriptive Abstract:**

Uses one or more concise paragraphs in introduction/body/conclusion format Adds no new information, but simply summarizes the report Can be easily understood by any audience Is generally short, about 10% the size of the paper itself 1. Reread the paper looking for the main points emphasized and the manner in which it was written (chronologically, level of importance, cause and effect, etc.) 2. Approach the abstract in the same format but do not copy complete phrases or sentences from the original. 3. State the key questions you sought to answer in your research, but not the answers you found.
 * III. Qualities of a Good Abstract:**
 * IV. Steps for Writing an Abstract:**

**EXAMPLE:** This paper aims to analyze to what extent the ancient Greek novel of love and adventure can be seen as a utopian genre. The concept of utopia is both ambiguous and ambivalent. To some, utopia is an ideal worth fighting for and attaining, a beneficial and freeing principle conducive to happiness. To others, however, it has a negative connotation, that is, it means something impossible to attain and achieve, like a dream or a chimera. Utopia is also an intrinsically dialectic entity. It has a positive side, which corresponds to a perfect society, and a negative one, which identifies itself with a closed and totalitarian universe. The aim in this paper is, obviously, strictly literary. The literary utopia is a form of sublimation, a recreation of the real world. Therefore, it is an intellectual, a cultural and an elitist phenomenon. Fiction is utopia’s preferred mode of artistic presentation. Utopia is a literary genre (or rather, more precisely, a subgenre), be it fiction or a political society in real life. It distinguishes itself as a genre that provides a mythical description of the ideal city. But, alongside the utopian genre, there is also a utopian mode, known as utopianism. Whereas the utopian genre is constructive and objective, and aims to create a certain type of society, the utopian mode limits itself to utopian aspiration and to the mere allusion to ideal elements. Utopianism can then be defined as a tendency to utopia and therefore as an aspiration to happiness.The ancient Greek novel of love and adventure displays both features of utopianism and utopia: Utopianism, in the sense that the universe it depicts partly supersedes reality and consequently appears to be an ideal almost impossible to attain. The utopian component becomes apparent through the use of some recurrent features or topics, such as the characters’ idealized beauty, the unfailing defence of chastity, the attempt at spiritual selfimprovement, evident especially in Heliodorus’ Aethiopics, and the customary happy ending. Utopia, in the sense that it crystallizes the utopian spirit or utopianism. In fiction, this crystallization takes shape through the achievement of a perfect and paradigmatic society as, for example, the one described in the last part of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, considered by some authors as the model for a political utopia. Utopia, as topos, is the myth of the ideal city, projected in the present and into the future, and symmetrical with another myth, that of the ancient golden age and lost paradise. Therefore, it sometimes retrieves and incorporates elements from past times almost turned into myth with the passing of the years. Such is Chariton’s case, who retrieved and idealized the lost world of the polis’ autonomous state. Utopia and reality can be allegorical and symbolic of each other. Reality is sometimes depicted as a stylized utopia which thus becomes an allegory or a symbol of a certain reality. Greek novels are connected with the reality of their time in many different ways. But there are other forms of bringing the ideal and the real closer together. There are cases where the real is boosted by the ideal, so to speak. Utopia is not only a dream ;   it aims to be a flagship and a   transforming agent of reality. Does the Greek novel of love and adventure display or not this controversial side of utopia? This paper will also attempt to answer this question. Kilborn, Judith. Purdue University. http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html. 2/6/09 [|__www.ican2008.ul.pt/ICAN2008_en/How_to_contribute/**abstract**_sample.pdf__]. 2/6/09