PGR Festival Abstract upload

Uni ID

Full name

Abstract Title

Abstract

Privacy notice

The data on this form relates to your submission for PGR Festival. The date and time of your submission, your identity and the work you have submitted will all be stored, but will not be used for any purpose other than administering and recording your PGR Festival submission. Please see our Student Privacy Notice for further information.

The University of Warwick is the Data Controller of any information you have entered on this form and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with Data Protection Legislation. The University's Data Protection webpages provide further information on your rights and how the University processes personal data. If you wish to submit a data subjects rights request, make a complaint or report a suspected personal data breach, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.

Spam prevention

Abstract Writing

Crafting Effective Conference Abstracts: A Guide for Postgraduate Researchers

Purpose and Function

Conference abstracts serve a dual purpose within academic settings. First, they enable selection committees to evaluate submissions for inclusion in the programme. Second, they allow attendees to navigate parallel sessions and identify presentations relevant to their interests. Developing proficiency in abstract writing is therefore essential for researchers seeking to disseminate their work—whether at conferences, in peer-reviewed journals, or through research repositories.

Core Characteristics

A well-constructed abstract typically ranges from 100 to 250 words and functions as a condensed representation of your research. Three qualities determine its effectiveness:

Accuracy — faithfully representing the scope and findings of your work
Relevance — connecting to the conference theme and audience interests
Engagement — generating sufficient interest to draw appropriate readers or attendees

Achieving this compression while maintaining substance often proves more challenging than producing the full paper itself.

A Structural Approach

One useful technique involves drafting your complete paper first, then distilling each section into a single sentence. These sentences form the skeleton of your abstract. Rather than concatenating them verbatim, use them as scaffolding—reshaping and connecting the ideas into flowing prose. This method preserves logical coherence between abstract and presentation, preventing the introduction of claims absent from your actual work.

Content Expectations

Unlike promotional blurbs designed to intrigue through omission, academic abstracts should comprehensively summarise your contribution. Key elements include:

The research question or problem addressed
Your methodological approach
Principal findings or arguments
Implications and future directions (where applicable)

Your title warrants equal attention,as it works alongside the abstract to frame reader expectations.

Abstract Structure Guidance

The Doctoral College recommends using the IATL Method for abstract writing for interdisciplinary audiences.

The IATL Method is based on research by Day and Peters (1994), "Quality Indicators in Academic Publishing", Library Review, 43, 7

The IATL Method

FIRST, consider four key questions about the research project:

The WHY? The WHAT? The SO WHAT? The NOW WHAT?

THEN,create the final abstract by compiling the responses to the key questions, considering the following through the editing process.

Is anything missing that was integral to the project?Perhaps there’s an aspect of the research that didn’t fit neatly into the four answers. Now add any important elements that were missed.
Has the combination of the four responses produced some repetition?If so, streamline the abstract and remove any extraneous material.
Are some transitional phrases needed between the answers to the questions?Think about how to guide the reader through the abstract and the research process. Abstracts should inform but they can also be enjoyable for the audience to read. Add transitional words, phrases, or sentences to clearly connect the different aspects of your project.
How accessible is the abstract to an interdisciplinary audience?Subject-specific language is used in all disciplines, however, at an interdisciplinary conference, it’s important that the work is accessible to all. Reduce the use of jargon where possible and seek advice outside the field to check the abstract for intelligibility.
Don’t forget about the title!Titles are important. At the conference, a great title will attract audience members to the presentation and increase their engagement with the research. And, beyond the conference, a good title enhances the discoverability of the research online, increasing the chances of being cited by other scholars. Make sure the title reflects the project accurately and includes key words that can help others discover the research.

The WHY?

The WHY: Why are you researching this topic?

This question asks you to think about why you are researching a specific topic and what makes it important. Consider what type of contextual information would be needed for an undergraduate in a different discipline to understand your study. This may require you to locate it within a particular research field and outline what is known in the academic literature about the issue to date. If there is a research problem or a gap in knowledge or literature that has motivated your work, you should describe it here. You should think deeply about what your specific research question is and outline it. In other words, use this introductory section to provide your reader with the context of your research, where it fits within the existing academic literature, and identify the question your research is addressing. Put simply, provide arationalefor why your project is worthwhile.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 75 words.

The WHAT?

The WHAT: How did you research this topic, and how did you discover?

Your answer to this question describes the research that you’ve undertaken. What did you do and how did you do it? If you were one member of a larger research group, what wasyourcontribution to the project? Did you employ a particular methodology or analyse data using a theoretical framework of some kind? Make sure that the reader understands what specific materials you’ve examined during the course of your research (for example, literature, pre-existing survey data, scientific specimens). Here, you can also outline any research tools used in your study (for example, software, equipment, analysis techniques). Importantly, your answer to this question also reports the results of your research. Describe the research findings you discovered in undertaking your research project and what you will discuss at the conference (you want to ‘hook’ the audience in, without giving everything away). Were you able to answer your research questions, and did you discover any incidental, but important, findings?

In other words, use this section to tell the readerwhat you did, how you did it and what you discovered.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 75 words.

The SO WHAT?

The SO WHAT: What do you findings mean, and why do they matter?

You’ve reported the results of your research study in answer to the previous question. Now you need to tell the reader what these findings mean and why they matter. How do they make a significant contribution to knowledge in your field? How might they impact wider society? It’s here that you can provide answers to your research questions, if you have used them.

In other words, use this section tocommunicate your overall argument and why this research is significantto the reader. This is the ‘aha!’ moment, when the reader comes to understand the true value of your research.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 50 words.

The NOW WHAT?

The NOW WHAT: What comes nest?

Finally, think about the future implications and relevance of your research. What comes next? Have your discoveries opened new lines of research enquiry? How might others—in or outside your discipline—respond to your research and progress it? Are you planning on developing further studies in this area, or translating it into practice in some way? Is there a group of people who could benefit from your research? Mention your plans: are you considering founding a startup, or will you communicate your findings to practitioners in your field, for example?

In other words, use this concluding section toshare the potential future applications of your researchwith the reader. Leave them in no doubt of the relevance of your project.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 50 words.