Because informative abstracts need more detail, the regular backwards outline may not be as useful a strategy for this type of abstract. Instead, do a backwards outline on the left-hand side of a piece of paper. Then, on the right-hand side, answer the question "what does this paragraph say?" for each paragraph in the paper. Then complete the steps below:
- Take your first column and generalize down to 4-5 sentences about what the paper does.
- Use these sentences as topic sentences for the paragraphs in your abstract.
- Now, go to your second column and choose appropriate content for each section you outlined in #2. In other words, use the right-hand column to fill in details about what your paper says on each point outlined in #2.
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