To support its students through the demands of the ever-changing academic sector, the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies (FCMS) hosted a one-day Workshop on the 21st December 2017. The workshop was aimed at educating and informing the students about “The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Conference Abstracts”. Abstracts which are short documents that are intended to capture the interest of a potential reader of your paper must be persuasive and precise.
The Workshop was held at the Faculty’s Purple Room and began at 10:36 am. It was an avenue for the students, staff and everyone in attendance to learn about the most persuasive and intriguing ways to write abstracts. To grace the event as the Guest Speaker was, Nico Carpentier, a Professor at the Department of Informatics and Media of Uppsala University, a renowned research University in Sweden. Carpentier’s work focuses on and is not limited to the intersection of democracy, culture and conflict with an interest in peace-building.
In his presentation to the audience, He talked about the importance of identifying conference types, whether large or small, and identifying what abstract format is required by a conference. He added that potential conference goers should consider the financial implication before they send abstract (s) to conferences. He also mentioned other technical qualities to take into consideration when writing abstracts such as, the organizers and scientific committee.
He stressed on the importance of the first sentence in abstract saying that first sentences are extremely important, and he urged the audience to ensure that every written abstract persuasively written because most reviewers do not invest time in reading abstracts and therefore take the small details at the beginning into serious consideration.
At the close of the event by 1:35 pm, a review was made of written abstracts by participants. Carpentier gave an overview and advised on how to increase the chances of abstract acceptance.
By Jemimah Atii
