英语摘要写法

摘要（Abstract）

摘要(Abstract) 也成为内容提要，通常在学士论文中都必须附有摘要，其位置应放在论文的正文之前，对整个论文内容的概述。无论对专业读者还是对非专业读者而言，摘要都是一个非常重要的文件。

摘要如果和论文一起发表，则被称为一次性出版物摘要，主要用于帮助读者评价文章内容及其潜在作用，使读者不必阅读全文就可以了解论文的内容。除此之外，摘要也可以被单独收入文摘机构出版的摘要期刊如：生物学文摘（Biological Abstract）、化学文摘（Chemical Abstract）等、称为二次性出版物摘要。此类脱离论文独立成篇的摘要主要用于方便读者检索文献、收集信息，帮助研究者寻找新的研究领域。

一．摘要的定义

摘要的英文术语：有两个词汇，一个是abstract, 一个是summary.

根据美国国家标准学会（American National Standard Institute）于1971年通过并颁布的《美国国家文摘写作标准》（American National Standard for Writing Abstracts）规定，Abstract 不应与summary 混同。

Abstract 对一篇论文的主要内容以精炼的文字进行高度概括，使读者不必阅读全文即可了解论文内容，或者让读者对即将阅读的文章有思想准备，或者让读者判断是否有通读全文的必要。文中只对论文信息进行浓缩，而不加主观评论或解释，可以脱离原文而独立成篇。字数通常在100~150个词左右，更确切地说，约为原文长度的1% ~ 5%（有的杂志规定摘要平均为全文的3% ~ 5%）。现在越来越多的用法是abstract. 尤其是放在索引资料中一律要用abstract 这个术语，在论文的题目下也通常要用这个词。

Summary (概要) 与abstract 无明显差别。严格地说，summary 一般附在论文的后面，对论文的主要结论和成果进行再叙述。其前提是读者已经通读过全文，通过summary 来巩固论文的主要论点和成果。在某些论文中，用summary 取代正文中的conclusion 部分。Summary 是论文的“缩影”，可以概括论文的全部内容，只是在删繁就简上下功夫，字数长短不一，少则两三句话，多则500个单词甚至更长。美国的一些高等学校规定，硕士论文提要（summary）以250词左右为宜，而博士论文题要以350词左右为宜。国际会议论文的提要一般规定为300 ~ 500 词或1000 个印刷符号。

至于究竟要采用什么形式，要根据征稿而定。一般说来，国际学术会议论文及要求按Summary 方式来写摘要，而正式出版发行的刊物要修不尽一致。对于个别论文还见有前面为Abstract, 结尾又有一个Summary , 这多半是由于文章过长，内容有多，后面的Summary 相当于该文的缩写。

二．摘要的种类

摘要分为两类，一类是说明性摘要（Descriptive/ Indicative Abstract），一类是资料性（Informative Abstract）摘要。

1.说明性摘要（Descriptive / Indicative Abstract）

如同迈克尔.艾利（Michael Alley）所说，“一篇说明性摘要是段落形式的目录，使读者手中的一份简要地图。”从这句话中可以清楚地了解说明性摘要的作用。说明性摘要指向读者指出论文的主要议题是什么，不涉及具体的研究方法和结果，但无法给读者提供更多的详细信息。它一般是用于综述性文章，也用于讨论、评论性文章，尤以介绍某学科近期发展动态的论文居多，常出现“…is studied”、“…is discussed”字样。时态多用现在时或现在完成时。其篇幅也较短，大多在100 ~ 150 字之间。以下是一篇说明性摘要的样例。

Ten widespread diseases that are hazards in isolated construction camps can be prevented by removing or destroying the breeding places of flies, mosquitoes and rats, and by killing their adult forms.

由于说明性摘要仅限于陈述论文的主要论题且篇幅较小，主要用于评述性的论文。

2.资料性摘要（Informative Abstract）

资料性摘要的优点是比说明性摘要能提供多的多的信息，它应该尽量完整和准确地体现原文的具体内容，特别强调指出研究的方法和结果、结论等。其篇幅较长，大多在150 ~250 字之间。根据原文长度，也有多达500字的。通常，这类的摘要反映了论文的基本面貌，能够代替阅读论文全文。

Ten widespread diseases that are hazards in isolated construction camps can be prevented by removing or destroying the breeding places of flies, mosquitoes and rats, and by killing their adult forms. The breeding of flies is controlled by proper disposal of decaying organic matter, and of mosquitoes by destroying or draining pools, or spraying them with oil. For rats, only the indirect methods of rat-resistant houses and protected food supplies are valuable. Control of adult forms of both insects and rodens requires use of poisons. Screens are used for insects. Minnows can be planted to eat mosquito larvae.

三．如何写摘要

1.摘要的位置

摘要的位置是确定的，一般在作者工作单位的下方。如：

Cultural Differences Between China and U.S.A (标题)

Xu Ying （署名）

Hunan University (Changsha, Hunan, 410082) (工作单位)

Abstract: (摘要)

Key words: (关键词)

2.写作要点

（1）长度：有专家认为150 ~ 200 个词之间；文章长度的五分之一。

有些刊物会规定摘要的篇幅不能超过一定的字数，如：在80 ~ 100 之间，在投稿前应查询。

若刊物没有规定长度时，可以参阅已发表的文章长度。

参加国际会议的论文摘要有字数限制，一般要求200 ~ 500 个词之间，约1000个印刷符号。（美国化学文献、医学文献的论文摘要规定在200个词以内）

（2）不要重复论文中的句子。

（3）避免列举大堆数据

（4）一般只是一个段落，不要将其分为数段。

（5）不要使用祈使句、感叹句、公式、表格等。

（6）完成论文后在写摘要。

（7）一般使用第三人称或被动语态。

（8）语言需简明扼要。

下面请看一段论文摘要：

This paper deals with the English syllabus for graduate students in China. The paper first reviews the history of the graduate English teaching, then discusses the shortcomings in the syllabus and finally proposes some suggestions for its revision.

Key words: syllabus, graduate English teaching

阅读下面文章，然后写出一段80个词左右的摘要。

These days, there is a common belief among parents that schools are no longer taking any notice of students’ spelling. But, no school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much importance it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling.

If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choose to avoid adventurous language. That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience. “This work is terrible! There are too many spelling errors and your writing is hard to read.” It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was a sad remark from the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his attention had centered on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation to seek improvement.

三．摘要的内容

摘要的写作必须准确、明晰、简洁，概述与细节之间需要相互平衡、相互补充。内容取舍的标准首先是对论文本身重点的理解，其次应该考虑到读者阅读的方式。资料性摘要的内容通常包括：

1.背景知识或文献回顾（Background Information / Literature Review）

2.研究的主要目的和范围（Principal Purpose）

3.研究方法（Methodology）

4.研究的主要结果（Results）

5.结论和建议（Conclusions and Recommendation）

例1：

This article discusses some possible roles for self-access pathways, particularly in cultures which have no tradition of self-study. It suggests how pathways might influence the design and running of self-access centres, and gives an illustration of how pathways were designed and employed in a centre in China. Feedback is based on a mini-survey distributed to thirty users.

(ELT Journal V ol.51/1 January 1997 Oxford Univ. Press, 1997)

例2：

The science taught in the classroom should be resonable up-to-date. What is taught should place emphasis first on the principles and major concepts of science rather than on the applications of scientific knowledge. The instructional techniques comprise laboratory work which is introduced in such a manner as to emphasize science as a process ----- to reveal through practice that science involves inquiry, discovery, and experimentation. The paper suggests that college science programs should be revised with view to preparing teachers to handle science in secondary and elementary schools.

四．常用表达方式描述目的、介绍相关知识

描述观察角度：

a.… from the angle of …

b.… in the light of the contex that …

c.To view something at a different angle / from various angles

d.From the point of view of …

e.From the perspective of …

描绘方法：

a.Detailed information has been acquired by the authors using …

b.This is a theory based on the idea that …

c.Several sets of experiments have been performed to test the validity of …

d.The method used in our study is known as …

e.The technique the author adopted is referred to as …

f.The approach taken in the investigation is called …

g.The experiments consisted of four steps, which are described in …

描述结果：

a.The results show / indicate that …

b.The results are as follows:

c.The analysis of the samples indicates that …

d.We found that …

e.Data suggested (表明，暗示) that … (从句中不用虚拟语气)

f.It is shown that …

g.

h.the author

i.the results / findings / observations have shown that …

j.the outcome has proved that …

k.the data obtained seem to be very similar to those reported earlier by …

描述结论：

a.In conclusion, the result shows …

b.To sum up, we have revealed …

c.It can be conclued / acknlowledged that …

d.The examination / investigation proves that …

e.In summing up it may be stated that …

f.All the preliminary results throw light on the nature of …

g.These findings of the research have naturally led the author to the conclusion that …

Practic: Exercise

1.Directions: Read the following passage first and then write an abstract of 60 to

80 words.

The use of the word “imitation”reminds me that I should make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on Tv in the way of crime or violence. First there was always a risk of children acting out according to what they saw from a TV program, which could be dangerous. For example I remember a woman who was a head of a primary school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were in the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck under the branch of a tree; fortunately she was in time to stop them before the child was hanged. I remember a film of no particular merit in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by killing his guard, the technique of doing this being shown in detail. This was the kind of scene which we should cut for the reasons.

In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen any details of criminal techniques, such as how to open a locked soor with a piece of wire, or how to open a safe; if we were consulted before profuction I used to advise that the details should not be shown. When I gave talks in prisons about film censorship I invariably had full support for this; since fathers who were in prison for criminal offenses did not want their children to embark on crime.

Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi made by Jules Dassin in 1954. This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweler’s shop, the robbery sequence lasting about half an hour and being backed only by natural sound ---- one of the most brilliant film sequences of all time. I remember our discussions at the time. We took into account the fact that the robbery was accomplished only with the use of elaborate and obviously expensive equipment, and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it; we believed therefore that it was relatively safe. When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied, so perhaps we were wrong.

2.Directions: Read the following passage first and then write an abstract of 60 to

80 words.

We have recently heard a great deal about the bad effects of computers on our social and economic organizations. In industy, computers mean automation, and automation means unemployment. Computers in the United States have already begun to displace workers whose tasks are simple. The variety of jobs, formerly done only by humans, that the machine can perforn more rapidly, accurately, and economically, increases with each new generation of computers. If we follow this trend, we will be faced with mass unemployment for all but a handful of highly trained professionals, who will then be more powerful and overworked than they are now.

What can we do about it? It is foolish to dream of reversing history. We cannot pass laws forbidding the advancement of science and technology. The computing machines are here, and they will grow because engineers want to build them, and politicians want their help in the process of government. In short, they will develop and become popular because they enable us to complete tasks that could never before have been undertaken, no matter how many unskilled laborers we might have set to work. Computers will continue to increase our intelligence for just the same reason that engines continue to strengthen our muscles. The question we must ask in not whether we shall have computers or not have computers, but rather, since we are going to have them, how we can make the most humane and intelligent use of them.

3.Directions: Read the following Chinese article, and then write an abstract for it

in English.

关键词

关键词（Key words）也称主题词，关键词可作为文献检索或分类的标识，从论文中选出的最能代表论文中心内容特征的词或词组。这主要是为了检索刊物编制索引和输入计算机检索系统，方便刊登该文的刊物编制年终索引；同时也有助于读者了解该论文的主题研究方向、方法等及编排个人检索卡片。一篇论文一般要提供3 ~ 5个关键词。有的刊物规定了选关键词的顺序为由大到小，即先选子学科，再选子学科下面的方向，再选方法等等。多数刊物则没有明确规定，遵从一般规矩，首先要选用论文所研究的对象，如物质、性质、现象、定律、理论等单词或词组；其次，应选用所采用的方法和手段；最后，可选用论文所讨论的范围，即属于哪一类课题，和前面的顺序刚好相反。总的原则是要使读者能够根据关键词查到原文。

选择关键词的方法是：首先，要认真分析论文的主旨，选出与主旨一致，能概括主旨，使读者能大致判断论文研究内容的词或词组。其次，选词要精炼，同义词、进一次不要并列为关键词；复杂的有机化合物一般以基本结构的名称做关键词，化学分子式或数学公式不能做关键词。还有，关键词的用于必须统一规范，要准确体现不同学科的名称和术语。最后，关键词的选择大多从标题和摘要中产出。但是，如果有的标题和摘要没有提供注意反映论文主旨的关键词，还需从论文中选择。一些新的、尚未被出版的专业词汇所收录的重要术语，也应选作关键词。

关键词的写法是每个关键词或词组用逗号“，”或分号“；”同下一个词或词组隔开，最后一个关键词没有标点符号。

例如：

Copper; cupric sulfate; production method

关键词以名词或名词短语居多，如果使用缩略语，则应为公认和普遍使用的缩略语，如：IP, AIDS, CAM. 否则应写出全称，其后用括号标出其缩略语形式。

除非本来就是专业名词，关键词的第一个字母一般不大写。

Practice: Exercise

Directions: Write out the titles and keywords on the basis of the following abstracts.

Abstract 1

With the development of multimedia technology, more and more people get information by “reading”computer’s screen and it results in a new communication problem. When developing a multimedia presentation program, it is very important to organize the multimedia materials in the way that the “reader” could control the program conveniently, concentrate on the main point quickly and enjoy the presentation easily.

Abstract 2

The Chinese cuisine naming has its specific cultural implications. Its primary motivation is characterized with straightforwardness, as the name of a Chinese dish usually contains four parts: main raw material, subsidiary raw materials, way of cutting and way of cooking. Its literal translation into English generally doesn’t cause much misunderstanding. The secondary motivations of Chinese cuisine naming consist of the initiator’s name, the animal’s name and the plant’s name, which are characterized with associativeness. The Chinese cuisine naming after the initiator’s involves cultural background knowledge. As an animal’s or a plant’s name may cause different associations between the Chinese people and the English- speaking people, the cuisine naming after the animal’s or a plant’s name may give rise to different cultural implications. Its translation into English often forms a cross- language and cross-cultural issue. Recently, with more cultural background knowledge involved, Chinese cuisine naming has tended to become diversified. We should follow the principles of stability and consistency in cuisine naming and its tanslation.

Abstract 3

In the 21st century, the most fierce competitions are in the supply of talented people of high quanlity, not in industry and scientific technology. If, to say, the 20th century is still an era in which “ wealth comes from material resource”, then the 21st century is going to be a completely new era in which “wealth comes from human resources.” To transform the “ Examination-oriented Education” into the “Quality-oriented Education” is not a partial adjustment of teaching methods, rather, it is a systematic program that involves various concepts such as the change of education thinking, the reform of educational structure and the renovation of teaching methods.