【寫作技巧】What is an abstract?（主編 路光暉 提供）

「台灣昆蟲」英文編輯Dr. Roger Haesevoets在最近往返書信中，提供一則如何撰寫科學報告「摘要」的注意事項。謹摘錄如下，供作者們參考。

At the beginning of a scientific paper is the abstract.

The abstract is a general synopsis of the entire paper.

Scientific papers generally follow the IMRAD layout - the acronym that stands for the four basic sections of the paper.

Therefore, the abstract must contain information from all 4 sections of the paper:

Introduction (What question was asked?),

Material and method (How was it studied?),

Results (What was found?) and

Discussion (What do the findings mean?).