Guidelines for Writing Abstracts

1. Have an informative but brief title.

2. Clearly state the problem to be addressed or the research questions raised by prior studies.

3. State the main point(s) or argument(s) of the proposed paper, with relevant data if possible.
If the paper is empirically based, state specific hypotheses and at least an outline of the results obtained.

4. Show the relevance to other linguistic research.

5. Give references to any literature cited in the abstract.

The abstract should be 350-500 words, single spaced, on a single page. Typically it contains three paragraphs:

I. Identify the problem/question. It should be specific and answerable within

the scope of the paper. State the motivation: why is this interesting (e.g.,

never done before, partially done, or done but problematic.)

II. Describe your investigation: data, methods, preliminary results, and answer to the question.

III. Conclusion and significance of findings. Explain the significance for sociolinguistics,

for society, and any practical purposes (teaching, translation, etc.)

Abstracts are due on Tuesday, March 5, 2002

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Last Updated: Feb. 26, 2002