Webinar Transcripts:

Successfully Writing Doctoral Capstone Abstracts

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Presented October 16, 2018

Last updated 11/26/2018

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Audio: Hello, everyone. And welcome to the webinar today. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Beth Nastachowski and I'm going to be one of the facilitators for today’s session and I just wanted to get us started by going over a couple of quick housekeeping notes. 

The first thing I will note here is that the webinar is being recorded and I'll be posting this in our webinar archive probably be tomorrow afternoon. So, if you have to leave for any reason or if you’d like to come back to review the session, you're more than welcome to do so. And I’d also like to note here is that all of our sessions are recorded in the Writing Center, so if you're ever looking for help on a writing topic, the webinar recordings archive is a great place to go and you can find over 40 recordings there. So, that's one thing I'd like to point out to you. 

Another thing we'll be having is places you can interact with our presenter Carey and your fellow students. I know Carey has a poll and chats she'll be using. Additionally, there's links that you can use that you can click and open up on your own computer. So, if you click those links they will open up on a new tab on your browser. So that's another great way to get more out of the webinar if there's a topic that you'd like more information about, or a resource. That’s a great way to save those 

I also like to note however that the slides Carey will be using are in the files pod, that’s at the bottom right hand corner, so you’re welcome to download that, along with hand out with additional resources that you can save to your computer as well.       

There's also a Q&A box on the right side of the screen. If you have questions throughout the session today please make sure to, let us know. So, myself and my colleague Sara will be monitoring those questions and we are be happy to get you answers and links to further information or resources if that's applicable as well. Do let us know in the Q&A box how we can help. 

However, I’d also like to note that at the end of the webinar, sometimes we have to end early‑‑ not end early but end without being able to respond to everyone's question just because the time is up and we want to be respectful of everyone's time. 

If that's the case or you think of a question after the webinar, please make sure to let the editors know, at editor@mail.waldenu.eduthey welcome your emails and you're welcome to send questions as well through that e-mail address.

The last thing I'll note here is if you have technical issues let me know in the Q&A box. I have a couple of tips and tricks I can provide you. There's also the help button on the top right corner and that's a good place to go for any technical help.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the title of the webinar, “Successfully Writing Doctoral Capstone Abstracts” and the speakers name and information: Carey Little Brown, Dissertation Editor, Walden University Writing Center.

Audio:With that, Carey, I'll hand it over to you. 

Carey: Thanks Beth. Hi, I’m Carey Little Brown, and thank you all for coming today. I hope to present some information that's useful to you. I'm one of the dissertation editors at the Walden Writing Center and I’m in the groups that conducts the form and style review, which comes really close to the end of the dissertation, doctoral study slash capstone, doctoral approval process. Right before the oral conference and right after the final URR review. I've been with Walden since 2012, and I enjoy this work. So, we read the dissertation that's part of the form and style review. As we'll be discussing later in the presentation, it then goes for a more detailed review with the CAO or chief academic office at the very end of the approval process. But we do take a look and do a preliminary review and revision and comment round on all of the abstracts. So, I'm excited to present this session. 

In the background is Sara Witty. She's one of my colleagues another form and style editor who can answer questions and I've encouraged her to break in at any point if there's anything I have said or presented that needs to be repeated or clarified. I'm more than happy to do that. Please feel free to ask any questions and make any comments that you have. Oops. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Learning Outcomes:

After this webinar, you will be able to …

• Identify the purpose and audience of an abstract
• Apply Walden/APA guidelines for abstract format and content
• Write an effective, concise abstract

• Locate additional abstract resources

Audio: All right. So, there are four main outcomes that we hope to have in this webinar, and these are the following. I would like to present information that helps you to identify the purpose and audience for an abstract. 

You're going to learn how to apply specific Walden and APA guidelines for abstract format and content so that you can ideally get that abstract approved. 

We're going to talk about how to write an effective and concise abstract that meets those guidelines and brings forward the information in the best way possible. And that's grounded in some very specific examples. 

And finally, at the end of the presentation, we'll talk about some additional resources specific to writing the abstract that you can get through the Writing Center and elsewhere at Walden. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: What is an Abstract?

•      Concise description of a study

•      “Brief, comprehensive summary of the contents” of a work (APA Publication Manual)

•      Differs from an introduction: “an abstract, unlike an introduction, is a summary, and not a teaser summary, a complete summary.” (Claire Helakoski, Walden WC blog post)

Audio:So first of all, we're going to talk about what an abstract is. Oh, but I'm jumping ahead, actually. [Chuckling]. Beth, we had a poll. Why don't we go ahead and launch that now before I go into this content? Those of you in the audience, if you would be willing to make a selection from this poll. This asks, which of the following best describes your current stage in the capstone process? And hopefully where you are in the process is captured in this. And I'll give that a moment while you answer. 

[silence as students take the poll]

Okay. So, looks like a good mix of students. I have a couple of other. Curious what that is. But I see some people at the final study stage where you're getting close to producing this document of the abstract. Quite a few people in the proposal and preproposal stages. Well good, this should be useful to all of you, since the abstract is something that you keep revisiting really until the very end of the approval process. 

All right.  We can exit the poll. All right. So, what is an abstract? At first glance, the definition of an abstract might seem pretty simple. In capsule form it's a concise description of a study. But, if you look into it a bit further there's some nuance to what an abstract in the doctoral capstone. In the APA publication manual, they described an abstract as a brief comprehensive summary of the contents of the work. And digging into that a bit I think is helpful. And you could do it by thinking about how the summary that you have in an abstract is distinct from some summary elements you might have elsewhere in your writing in the capstone such as in the introduction. And Claire, one of the writing instructors in the Writing Center wrote a really excellent blog post where she teases out I think a useful distinction between the sort of summary writing that you might see at the very beginning where you're presenting a background and kind of hook for a study and the information that actually shows up in the abstract. And that's this. 

An abstract is a summary of the work sort of from top to bottom whereas the summary elements that you might have in an introduction is more of a teaser summary, like a teaser summary of the background in your field that would lead you into the study that you specifically had presented. And I think it's a useful distinction because in the form and style review, I have often seen students who I think are in a hurry to produce something for the abstract part of the document, copy information that seems like summary information out of the beginning of their study, like the beginning of a chapter or section 1 in the introduction. And in nearly all cases, that's not a very effective strategy. A reason for that is, again, that the abstract really needs to capture that study sort of from top to bottom in miniature form. It needs to be a complete summary, not a teaser. And I believe that should come out in the examples we will be looking at. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: The Abstract as a Story

The abstract “should tell the story of your research from beginning to end and help the reader determine the applicability of your work to their own” (Walden Abstract Primer)

Logical storyline: What is known àWhat is not known (gap) àProblem/Question(s) àDesign àAnalysis àResultsàConclusions àSocial change impact

Audio:So, one way to think about that sort of top to bottom presentation of your story of your abstract is through a metaphor of the story. And that metaphor is used specifically in Walden's abstract primer which I believe is produced through the research office. And there's an excellent quote in there that says, the abstract should tell the story of your research from beginning to end and help the reader determine the applicability of your work to their own. 

And that could play out, you know, in a number of ways, as we'll see in the examples. But the idea behind that metaphor is that the abstract can follow what you can think of as a logical story line, and that will help the ideas flow from one thing to the next and develop a full picture. So, for example, often an abstract will go from presenting what is known about your topic or in the field to what is not known relevant to your study. That's that gap in the literature that your study fills. It then would naturally lead to the problem or questions that you investigated, which leads to the design that you selected, the analysis that you conducted, the results that you generated through that analysis, and then the conclusions that you drew on the basis of that work. And then often, that will wrap up with some discussion ‑‑ and this is an element of all capstones at Walden, specifically ‑‑ of the potential social change impact of your work. And again, we'll be talking about all these elements in a lot more detail. But they all work together to present a narrative structure that I think can be quite effective in presenting the abstract as a story. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Audience for the Abstract, Part 1

General academic audience: The abstract is the public face of your work for the academic community as a whole.

•      Readers will decide whether to read the full study on the basis of the abstract.

•      Abstract should contain clear, precise language that incorporates relevant keywords, which will help other scholars locate the study in electronic searches.

Audio: Now, a story always has an audience, so I think we can continue the metaphor a bit further. And I think when you're thinking about the audience for your abstract, it can be useful to think of that in at least two broad ways and that's what these next two slides capture. 

So, the first audience for your abstract of course is the general academic audience. The abstract is going to serve as the public face of your work for the academic community as a whole. 

Readers are going to decide whether they want to read and access the full study on the basis of the abstract when they're conducting their own research. And in order to fulfill that role, it needs to contain clear and precise language and that language needs to incorporate relevant key words. That doesn't mean a listing of key words which is in the abstract included in the capstone document, but key words that are actually integrated into the page of abstract text because those are going to make it searchable so that other scholars can locate that study when they're conducting their electronic searches. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Audience for the Abstract, Part 2 

At Walden, every abstract undergoes CAO reviewafter the final oral presentation of the capstone. To receive approval, an abstract must:

•       Offer an accurate, complete, and coherent account of the study

•       Follow Walden and APA guidelines

Once published, the abstract will represent both the student and the institution.

Audio: Now, there's another element of the audience for the abstract that's more specific here at Walden. As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, every abstract undergoes CAO review, chief academic officer review. After the final oral presentation of the capstone. And that approval has to happen before the capstone receives final approval and before you can publish it with ProQuest. 

So, to receive approval, an abstract need to meet the following criteria. It needs to offer an accurate, complete, and coherent account of the study, it needs to follow all applicable Walden and APA guidelines, and it needs to ultimately be, you know, an effective presentation of your work and a presentation that also is a good representation of the student and the institution. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: APA and Walden Guidelines for the Abstract

Audio:Okay. And in the next section, I'm going to talk in more detail in concrete ways what the APA and Walden guidelines for the abstract that you need to follow, are. Before I do that,  were there any general questions about the information I just talked about the role and definition of an abstract? 

Okay. It looks like we are ‑‑ I'm not able to see the questions, so Sara or Beth, feel free to break in on me if there are any questions. 

Sara: I will. So far, we only have one question about the methodology. So, do they need to provide info on the methodology in detail or just a summary? 

Carey: Usually, you're not presenting full information. We'll be looking at specific examples as we go into the rest of the presentation that may clarify that a bit about how that may work out. It really is going to vary on a case by case basis, but I'll be showing authentic Walden abstracts from a qualitative and quantitative study so you may get a sense of what may or may not be included from looking at those. But if you have any questions as we get into that, feel free to ask.

If that's all, I'll go ahead and talk about the guidelines. [Clearing throat]. And, excuse me. Like everyone else, I've had a fall old that just will not end.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: General Abstract Guidance:

Characteristics of an effective abstract:

•       Accurate

•       Nonevaluative(report, don’t evaluate)

•       Coherent & readable

•       Concise

(APAPublication Manual[6^thed.], p. 26)

Audio: So, the APA manual talks in pretty broad terms about the characteristics of an effective abstract in the publication manual. And I think it's worth quickly going over those to get a sense, and again, of what the expectations are of abstract writing in APA style. 

First of all, an abstract need to be accurate. It needs to be an accurate depiction of what was actually done in the study that it summarizes. It needs to be nonevaluative. That means essentially, it's an objective presentation of the research. It's a reporting of the research, not a heavily evaluative or subjective or editorial kind of discussion. It needs to be coherent and readable. That gets to that issue I was touching on and talking about it as a story. It needs to have a logical, coherent flow. And one function of that is just making sure that it gets read in its abstract form and that your study gets read by people who are conducting similar research who might learn something from it. It needs to be appealing and have clarity in conveying what you did and how it might be relevant to your readers. And of course, a document that needs to be at Walden, a page long or less, it needs to be concise. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Layout of the Abstract

•      One block of text, no indent, double spaced

•      Text must fit on a single page

•      Standard font (Times New Roman, 12 pt)

•      “Abstract” centered at top of page in regular type

•      Preceded by abstract title page

Use the template for your doctoral program for correct format settings

Audio:Now, at Walden, we have specific guide lines for the layout of the abstract and these are captured in the Walden template document. [Clearing throat]. Excuse me. If you're aren’t already using it, I would strongly recommend ‑‑ and there's a link later in the presentation in the slides to where you can access the Writing Center capstone templates. But I would recommend that you use the template while you're writing your document. You can actually write it into the template document. And I say that primarily because the layout formatting that you’ll be required to use, before you get approval of the capstone are all captured and reflected in the template. It makes life a whole lot easier. 

But the abstract is laid out in the template the way it needs to appear and it has a few peculiar qualities that differ a little bit from some of the rest of the document. First of all, it's one block of text. It's not broken into paragraphs and it's not indented as paragraphs. There's no indentation. The whole thing is double spaced. 

As I said before. It needs to fit on a single page. It needs to be an in a standard font. So, given that single page requirement, there could be a temptation to, oh, can I put this in 11 point or 10 point or maybe 11.5. It needs to be in 12-point font like everything else. In nearly all cases, the font is Times New Roman. It needs to be consistent with the rest of the document. 

The word abstract is centered at the top of the page in regular type, not bold, not italic. And what comes before the abstract itself is what's called the abstract title page, that’s the first page of all the capstone templates. It's identical to the main title page which follows the abstract, except it has the word abstract at the top, just like the abstract does. 

And again, the template for your doctoral program is going to have all that information plugged into it, so you just kind of fill out those parts that are specific to your study and program. So, you know, I totally encourage you to go grab that template if you haven't already. And there's the link here. 

And now let's look at what that actually looks like on the page because I know hearing somebody describe that, at least being a visual person like myself, it's not real satisfying. So, I think it's helpful to look at it. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Abstract Example

An image of a paper 

• Heading “Abstract” centered, not bold or italic
• Text begins flush left
• 1.5” left margin
• “Ragged right” margin
• Double spaced, 12 pt font not longer than a page

Audio: This is what the abstract would typically look like on a capstone document. The heading abstract is there at the top. It's centered, it’s not bold, it’s not italic. The text starts flush left and the whole left side is justified. There's no paragraph indentation, no paragraph breaks. There's a 1-and-a-half-inch left margin that's true throughout the capstone documents so that presumably there would be a bound copy someplace, an actual physical copy. 1 and a half inches allows for binding. The margin on the right is not justified. We call that ragged right. So, there's that uneven right margin with the text. And the text again, all double spaced, all 12-point font, and it doesn't go over a page. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Rules Specific to the Abstract

Certain style rules apply onlyto the abstract:

•      Allnumbers must be expressed as numerals, unless at the beginning of a sentence

•      No references or citations

•      No “I” or “we” statements (passive voice may be appropriate)

•      Abbreviate a term only if it is used at least twice. (As with other APA abbreviations, write out the full term the first time, with the abbreviation in parentheses.)

Audio:Now, in terms of the actual content of the abstract and the way that's laid out and formatted on the level of the language, there's certain rules that apply only to the abstract, and I think it's worth bringing these out because they can be a little confusing, especially if you’ve just spent a lot of time following the rules you need to follow for the rest of the document. It's useful to be aware, I think, that there's a few little details where what you have to do in the abstract is a bit different. 

The first thing is all numbers in the abstract are expressed as numerals or digits. In the rest of your document as you probably know from working in APA style, there are certain times you write out words. There are certain times that you use numerals for numbers. But in the abstract, unless it's at the beginning of a sentence, you use a digit every time, and that is a space saving measure. 

There are no references or citations in an abstract. You might mention an author's name, particularly if you're mentioning very briefly the theorist who developed the framework that you based your study on. You might mention that theorist's name, but you don't include parenthetical citations. And the simple reason for that is the abstract serves as a free-standing document in a lot of ways, separate from the rest of your study and so there's no reference list it's attached to so it doesn't make sense to have citations. 

Now, here's the thorniest one because we spend a lot of time in the Writing Center reassuring, encouraging and admonishing everyone to use the first person when you're talking about yourself in your study. Don't call yourself the researcher. And that comes from APA style rules. In APA style for purposes of clarity, the APA editors say use I, me, pronouns to talk about yourself. Don't call yourself third person things like the researcher. Now, the one place that we don't want you to use I, me, my statements is the abstract. Again, that's because I like to think of it as the abstract is that free-standing document, kind of its own island apart from the rest of your study without that larger context. It needs to be in a more objective kind of tone. So that means in my view as an editor, you can ‑‑ you might get more anthropomorphic than you might in the rest of the document, meaning I am more likely to allow phrases like this study examined that people might call anthropomorphic, and that means giving human kinds of action to a nonhuman thing. You might get encouraged not to do that in the rest of your study. I would say you can do that. There's more passive voice that ends up being allowable if it's a way to avoid saying I, me, we in the abstract. You don't want the first person. You also don't want to use phrases like the researcher in the abstract. That's just awkward and that's avoided in APA style in general to talk about yourself. But the abstract is the one place we don't want you using first person. 

And finally, in the abstract, you would abbreviate a term, meaning use an abbreviation only for terms that are used at least twice. And this is true of all abbreviations in APA style. Any time that you present an abbreviated term, you need to write out the full term first with the abbreviation in parentheses after it before you use that abbreviation by itself. What's different about the abstract is that you can abbreviate things if you want to that are used at least twice whereas in the rest of the document, I think our recommendation is trying to limit abbreviated terms to things that appear at least four times in the text. The abstract works as a separate document for that purpose. So as long as it's used at least twice, you can abbreviate as long as you have that term written out at least once. And you're not using so many abbreviations that it's becoming unreadable. So, use your discretion kind of situation. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Alignment in the Abstract 

CAO reviewer: ~50% of abstract returns relate to alignment problems

•       Using qualitative terms to describe a quantitative study or vice versa 

Ex: "the purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the relationship between ...“

•       Incorrect inclusion of methods or design components

Ex: qualitative studies should not contain hypotheses; quantitative studies should not contain interview questions

•       Inconsistency in descriptions of methods, RQs, etc. across study as a whole

Audio: Okay. And I don't know if you all have heard the term alignment come up in your capstone writing process. That's something that ends up being important on the level of the review of your abstract at Walden is that it needs to have alignment, and we'll talk about what this means. The CAO or chief academic officer reviewer who again is the last hurdle before ProQuest publication, the last institutional hurdle at Walden, that office has told me that around half of the returns that they make of reviews, meaning they send back the abstract and say I’m sorry you need to revise this and resubmit it before we can give you approval, about half of those relate to alignment problems in the abstract. And alignment in this context means something about the way that your study is presented ‑‑ and this is usually a methodology issue ‑‑ in the abstract is not aligning or lining up with what actually happened in your study or what makes sense for the kind of study that you conducted. 

For example, that can be using qualitative terms to talk about a quantitative study or vice versa. And the example I can give is a phrase like the purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the relationship between ‑‑ that's a problem because when you're looking at a relationship between variables you typically have a quantitative, not a qualitative study. So, a phrase like that would signal, ohhh there's a big alignment problem. This needs to go back to the drawing board, this abstract and be rewritten. 

By the same token, incorrectly including certain kinds of methods or design components that aren't consistent or align with your methodology is something that can get flagged for revision. So qualitative studies don't have hypothesis, for instance. So, if you have hypothesis in a qualitative study, that's an alignment problem. Quantitative studies generally aren’t going to have open ended interview questions and so forth. 

And then more generally, any inconsistency in your descriptions of methods, your research questions, et cetera, where it's showing up in an abstract as different from what's actually happening in the study is a problem that could cause a revision request. So be thinking ‑‑ I would say alignment is perhaps the No. 1 thing to think about as you're revising an abstract. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Writing an Effective Abstract

Audio:Okay. And again, I know ‑‑ that's all a pretty abstract discussion about abstracts. So, I'm going to make that more concrete with specific examples from real world Walden abstracts that have been only lightly modified for this context. But before I do that I’ve have seen things popping up in the Q&A box but I haven't been able to read them. Is there anything I need to address or repeat or clarify? 

Sara: No, we were just discussing the fact that it's conferences. Students had seen that people had submitted abstracts in the conference that included citations. And I think that's pretty odd. I could see how you don't really have to stick to the exact abstract lay out at a conference versus a published documents. But do you have any thoughts about that? 

Well, I think ‑‑ you mean, like, organizational conferences, academic conferences? 

Sara: Yup.

Carey: Outside Walden? I think when I'm presenting here, what the APA manual has to say about abstracts is pretty limited to that slide that I showed early on. It sort of speaks to the qualities of a good abstract. The specific format requirements and the elements of the abstracts that are different from the rest of the study are Walden specific institutional requirements. And that's going to be true of ‑‑ you know, variations of APA style for different conferences, for different journals, for different universities. They’ll be slight nuances and differences that exist. So, this is something that we do ‑‑ these rules are things that we do in the spirit of the APA manual, but specifically at Walden where the manual may not specify. Does that make sense? 

Sara: Yes.

Carey: The APA manual may not necessarily address all those things. 

Sara: I do enjoy the description of working within the spirit of the APA manual. 

Carey: [Chuckling]. Yes, which I think we do in good faith. I don't think we're making major departures. But that's one area where ‑‑ because the APA wants to allow leeway for the individual academic institutions and conferences and publications that are interpreting and using their rules. Their publication requirements tend to be somewhat looser in certain areas like this to allow for institutional specifics. So that's I guess the best answer I can give. Was there anything else related to the content we just talked about? 

Sara: Nope, that was about it. 

Carey: Okay. All right. Well, let's look at some specific examples. And again, the examples I'm going to be showing here come from one of the other form and style editors in the DBA program got permission from students to show some good exemplars of showing quantitative abstract and qualitative abstract. So, I hope this is helpful even if it's not in your exact discipline. The general content guidance is very similar across programs. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Elements of an Abstract

1. Overall research problem/issue and why it is important. 
2. Specific problem of the study.
3. Theoretical foundations of the study.
4. Overall research design and methods.
5. Data analysis procedures.
6. Key results and conclusions.
7. Implications for positive social change.

Audio:Okay. So, when you're looking at the various guidance we have to abstracts at Walden, the abstract primer, which is link said elsewhere in this document which is a pretty comprehensive guide to writing abstracts at Walden or the description of the abstract that exists in the template documents, there's certain elements that are brought out in all of the descriptions that are required in any abstract at Walden. And as we'll be seeing in all the examples these don't need to occur in a certain order for the most part. But all of the elements need to be there. 

These are the elements. The first is the overall research problem and issue and some description of why that's important in the field. The second is the specific problem that your study addressed. The third the theoretical foundation of the study. The fourth is the overall research design and methods. The fifth is a description of the data analysis. The 6th is some key results and conclusions. And the seventh ‑‑ and again this is something Walden emphasizes specifically is the study’s possible implications for positive social change. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Elements of an Abstract

Let’s look at each of these elements with examples from a Walden abstract.

Audio:Now, let's look specifically at how those might work into a real-world abstract. And as this graphic shows, you can think of it as a puzzle with the colors representing those different elements all coming together. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: 1. Overall research problem/issue and why it is important.

• Should indicate (or at least imply) who has a stake in solving the problem
• Can include general statement of issue/brief background information, but should be interesting and focused.

Behaviors that may waste time in the workplace, like surfing the Internet for personal purposes (cyberloafing) or smoking breaks, may be the root antecedent for poor productivity.

Audio:And that can happen in a number of ways. First, we'll be looking at each of these elements with examples from I believe a quantitative study abstract. So that first element is the overall research problem or issue and why it's important. Your description should indicate or at least imply who has a stake in solving the problem that you're addressing, who the audience is for a study of this nature. That might include a general statement of the issue or a very small amount of background information. But it needs to stay interesting and focused. It shouldn't go on for many sentences. It needs to be pretty tight. 

And here's an example from a real abstract. And this, I believe, is the beginning of the abstract. Behaviors that may waste time in the workplace like suffering the interest for personal purpose, cyber loafing or smoking breaks may be the root antecedent for poor productivity. That's a general statement of an issue in the field in the world that the study is going to be addressing. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: 2. Specific problem of the study.

•      Clear, concise statement of research problem

•      May include main RQ(s) in statement form

The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was a relationship between the independent variables, time spent cyberloafing and time in uncontrolled smoking breaks, and the dependent variable, employee productivity. 

Audio:Okay. And then you would typically go into the specific problem of the study, and this is of course a very important element in the abstract. That needs to be a clear, concise statement of the research problem, that might include the main research question or questions. But those in the abstract, we typically ask that to be in statement form. I know in the form and style review, and I believe in the CAO review, the reviewers will discourage you from actually just copying your research question and tends to be awkward not to read as well. You want to generally convert that naturally into statement form so it fits into the flow of the discussion in the abstract.

And in the sample that we're looking at, that problem is conveyed in this sentence. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was a relationship between the independent variables, time spent cyberloafing and time in uncontrolled smoking breaks, and the dependent variable, employee productivity.