Have you already given a sigh of relief after completing the conclusion part of your dissertation? Certainly, you have what to celebrate. Still, here is a little spoiler: make certain you do not forget to write a dissertation abstract. Paradoxically, this relatively brief part is placed at the beginning of your thesis, but should be written after you write everything else. You may want to check these recommendations for writing a winning dissertation abstract relatively quickly and continuing to enjoy yourself until your thesis defense.

Dissertation abstracts: main goal

A dissertation abstract is an all-inclusive summary of the whole project so that a very busy reader can look through it and understand at a glance what your dissertation is about and what are its main findings and ideas. A dissertation abstract usually consists of 250-300 words, but covers the most important points of your dissertation. It should be a powerful statement encouraging readers to look into the thesis itself.

Dissertation abstracts: what to include

The main elements to include in dissertation abstracts can vary from university to university and from subject to subject. However, the common elements usually found in dissertation abstracts are:

• purpose of the research;
• rationale for investigating this question;
• brief background;
• a hypothesis or research question(s);
• methodology used;
• findings (this is why you cannot write dissertation abstracts before the rest of the project: you do not know your findings before completing the research).
• implications;
• conclusions.

Dissertation abstracts: questions to cover

These are the main questions that a powerful dissertation abstract answers:

1. What is the problem you chose to investigate in your dissertation?
2. Why did you choose this problem? Why is it important?
3. What have you done to investigate this problem?
4. What have you found out?

Dissertation abstracts: constructions to use

If you wonder how to write a dissertation abstract, you might want to check these constructions that will help you in thesis writing:

• This dissertation describes…
• This experiment was performed to determine…
• There is a need for further research…
• Because of this problem…
• Existing research assumes that…
• The given problem is solved through…
• Results can be used to improve…

You may want to complete these sentences to write particular sections of your abstracts.

Dissertation abstracts: example

Now that you clearly understand what the main goal and components of dissertation abstracts are, you might want to see a fragment from a sample dissertation abstract:

E.g. This dissertation describes the importance of proper conflict management within an organization. Existing research assumes that conflict management should be used for reducing the negative effects of conflicts and enhancing learning processes and group outcomes. There is a need for further research of the potential negative impact of conflict avoidance. An experiment was performed to determine the negative aspects of avoiding conflicts as a coping strategy used by managers…

Please note that the above is only a fragment from a sample dissertation abstract. Congratulations! Now you have a complete understanding of how to write a dissertation abstract and will surely write good abstracts for dissertations.