Question about conference abstract?

spamwarrior

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I'm a PhD candidate in English literature, and I'm getting ready to apply to conferences and such. I actually submitted a conference abstract for a specific major conference in my field (T.S. Eliot Society), and was notified the other day that it had been accepted, and that I would be able to present it at the conference.

This is a general question about preparing a conference abstract. I haven't had much experience with conference abstracts in general, but how I usually set up the abstract is two have two paragraphs introducing some contextual material, and then have the last paragraph discuss what my paper will do specifically, including conclusions. I modeled it off one professor's successful conference abstracts.

When I sent it to a different professor a few days ago, she gave me some really good suggestions (i.e., I'm too wordy, have too many long sentences). But one of them was to change the structure of my abstract so that the opening would say "My paper is about such and such." Is what I did necessarily a wrong thing? The abstract was successful in this instance, but I'm planning on applying to another conference in a different field (music), and I was wondering if there were specific conference abstract conventions that I should be aware of.
 

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The abstract was successful in this instance, but I'm planning on applying to another conference in a different field (music), and I was wondering if there were specific conference abstract conventions that I should be aware of.

No; those are the two basic styles. If you can get your hands on a program/schedule for a large conference in your field (for Medievalists, Leeds or Kalmazoo work, and they tend to be available online as .pdfs), you'll notice those are the two most dominant styles.

Look for past program descriptions for the conference you're interested in. They tend to be reprints of the abstract.
 

spamwarrior

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No; those are the two basic styles. If you can get your hands on a program/schedule for a large conference in your field (for Medievalists, Leeds or Kalmazoo work, and they tend to be available online as .pdfs), you'll notice those are the two most dominant styles.

Look for past program descriptions for the conference you're interested in. They tend to be reprints of the abstract.

Thanks, that's very helpful.
 

veinglory

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Abstract styles vary a lot. I think modelling your abstract on past successful abstracts for that meeting is a good strategy.
 

andrewhollinger

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As a Phd student, surely you've read too many academic articles to count. Most of them come with an abstract before the first paragraph. Do a quick study of those to get a feel for writing abstracts.

My experience with conferences is that some are incredibly strict about abstracts (usually national or global conferences) while most at the state, regional, or local levels are much more lax about what they'll accept as an abstract: they just want to know what to print in the conference schedule.

Good luck!