Many of you have encountered writing abstracts before, but for those that are somewhat unsure of how to best make use of the short segment of writing, hopefully the following will be useful!
We want an outline of your work, so before submitting an abstract it’s advised to develop your idea in some detail. Keep it short but affirmative, introduce the subject and what line of questioning you have decided to focus on. Please consider the following questions when drafting your abstract:
- What are the background* issues?/Context? (1-2 sentences);
- What is the modern/historic scholarship?/Interpretations? (3 sentences);
- What is your main line of questioning/argument? (1-2 sentences);
- What conclusion does your paper aim to produce? Alternatively, what is your key methodology* and how may that inform your conclusions? (1-2 sentences)
What the journal seeks is an outline of your paper, not a complete summation. As you develop your idea and conduct research, just like in litigation discovery, the facts will become clearer and more shall come to light that may alter how you approached the subject originally. This – in essence – is part of what is most admirable about academic writing: watching your idea flourish into something you may not have expected when you started.
Some stylistic details of the abstract:
- Introduce the focus and state your title (This paper, ‘[title]’, shall focus on ‘[focus]’) (1 sentence);
- If you wish to add extended references, please format them as footnotes to the standard of ‘Chicago: Notes and Bibliography’, for a full breakdown of how to reference in this style, please see the university’s referencing styles guidelines.
- The Abstract should use font ‘Georgia‘ with font size 12(in-body); 9 (footnotes).
- Spacing of 1.5 (in-body); and 1 (footnotes) with Text Alignment as Align Left.
- Word Count: the Journal shall not accept abstracts longer than 350 words.
