Information for Students | Program
Description and Requirements | Reporting Requirements | Progress
Reports | Abstract | Final Report
In addition to your progress reports, an abstract is due by the August pay
date, regardless of when you started your project. Details regarding the
abstract are below:
Please provide the final title of your project. Often titles
change from the original proposal to submission of the abstract. We need
your final project title now for preparation of program materials. We will
use the title you give us now in the annual report, abstract book, and proceedings
for each of the seminar days.
The abstract is a succinct outline of your research project.
For experimental projects, it (1) presents the principal objective and scope
of your project; (2) describes the methodology; (3) summarizes the results;
(4) states the principal conclusions. If you have no results yet, give the
conclusions or recommendations for continuation of the project or for subsequent
work to be done. For a theoretical paper, the abstract (1) describes the
issue; (2) describes the analysis; (3) states implications for further research.
Use clear, significant words when writing your abstract; eliminate extraneous
words. Do not use abbreviations, jargon, or specialized words. Abstracts
rarely cite references. Your abstract should stand alone and be intelligible
without reference to your final paper.
The abstract will be printed in the Seminar Day proceedings,
so it is essential that all information appears as you want it in print.
Be sure to proofread the text! We will print it as you submit it. Remember
that careless writing gives the impression of careless work. Be concise!
Abstracts should be no longer than 100-200 words. Abstracts that exceed the
word limit will be returned to the student for editing and resubmission.
We need two copies of your abstract, one submitted by email
as a Word attachment (very important) to sfp@caltech.edu,
AND the other a hard copy, signed by both you and your mentor. Both of these
are due by the August pay date, regardless of when you started your project.
If you have special symbols or formatting as part of your abstract,
it must be formatted for a PC in Microsoft Word. We do not have the software
capability to translate other programs. (This is especially important if
you include equations or a graphic - it must be reformatted to Word.)
For the two or three of you who need to insert chemistry graphics - it needs
to be embedded in the Word document. Click
here to view how your abstract should look. Please submit your abstract
by e-mail to sfp@caltech.edu. The title
of the message should be "Your Last Name, Your First Name - Abstract" so
that we can better track the messages.
