English for

Follow-up
16 You can advise learners to use the following free online 
databases to get access to academic articles in English:
Google Scholar – 
http://scholar.google.com/
HighWire – 
http://highwire.stanford.edu/
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – 
http://www.
doaj.org/
Lesson 3 Titles and abstracts
Time: 90 minutes
By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to
➡
identify the structure of an abstract
➡
use various structures to express the purpose of their research
➡
distinguish between different types of titles
➡
formulate a title for their articles
➡
draft an abstract
Lead-in
1 The aim of this activity is to stimulate learners to think 
about their experience of writing abstracts. You can 
suggest the answers below.
Suggested answers
1 Many researchers prefer to write abstracts last. It may sound 
reasonable to draft it before writing the article, and then revise 
and edit it when the article is finished.
2 An abstract for an article usually consists of a single paragraph 
(containing from about five to ten full sentences). The length 
depends on the guidelines provided by the journal. It usually 
varies from 100 to 250 words.
3 Most abstracts are informative and include the main findings. 
However, if abstracts are written for longer texts or for 
theoretical ones, they may be indicative.
Reading
2 You could first ask learners to skim the text quickly and 
identify what section of an academic article it is (it is an 
abstract). Explain the meaning of any unfamiliar words if 
necessary. Use the glossary.
Answers
Text 1 includes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7.
3 Ask learners to look at Text 1 in Lesson 2 on page 62 
and to say how it differs from Text 1 in this lesson. (Text 
1 in Lesson 2 is divided into sections, each of which has 
its own subheading; Text 1 in Lesson 3 does not have any 
sections.) Then ask learners to complete the table.

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