Is A Summary An Abstract Of A Novel?

When you start to read a novel first of all you would be searching the summary or it’s abstract in the first page, on the front of the book or at the back of the novel or any other book.

Before reading the whole novel you will be in search of its condensed form.  Once you get its summarized form you will be in a position to decide is it interesting or whether you are going to waste your time on it. So the summary and abstract will let you know what to do next…

An Abstract is a Summary of a Novel: True or False

People often get confused with the statement mentioned above whether an abstract is a summary of a novel or not?

although, summary and abstract can be similar in a sense that both are condensed write up on the document which is being discussed.  Both can be smaller than actual paper. But despite that there is a huge difference between summary and abstract of a novel.

Summary is more open ended than abstract and can contain much more varied information. On the other hand, abstract is even shorter than summary.  It gives a review of the whole document in just a word limit of 300.

What is an Abstract?

Abstract is a condensed overview of a paper that usually includes the purpose of the research study, the basic design of study and the major finding of the study.

Abstract is used in social science or scientific articles and its words limit should not exceed 300.

Reader will find the abstract always at the beginning of the document. It introduces and gives the reader the review of the whole article. In abstract author includes information about the background, purpose, result and content of the work.

Image of an abstract

Differences between Abstract and Summary

Between the Abstract and Summary, there exists a clear difference even though some students consider an Abstract and Summary as the same. These are used differently in relation to a thesis or a research paper and an essay or a chapter.

When paying attention to the words, specifically you might have noticed that summary is something that we are quite familiar with. It is to present a short version of some event, situation, book, etc.

Even in our daily life we summarize certain things. Imagine an instance where you are telling a story to a friend. You tend to summarize and present the facts, maybe ignore what you consider as irrelevant.

Even in language education students are taught, to summarize, certain essays and papers. An Abstract, however, is quite different from a Summary. This does not come in essays or books, but in research papers and thesis writing.

This is one of the main differences between an Abstract and a Summary. Through this article let us attempt to identify other differences between these two while broadening our understanding of the terms.

Some more Differences

Further, summary is a short form of an essay or a chapter in a book or an act in a play. You can write a summary of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of any play of Shakespeare.

You should not use the word ‘abstract’ to mean summary. In other words, it is wrong to say ‘write an abstract of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of the following play.  It is right to say ‘write a summary of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of the play.

This is the main difference between the two words abstract and summary and should not be confused. Also, a summary is said to reflect the events of the particular act of a play in a nutshell and does not involve the writer’s voice. It is a mere narration of events in an objective manner. This is the difference between an abstract and a summary.

.An abstract is said to reflect the mind of the author of the research paper. A summary, on the other hand, is said to reflect the events of the particular act of a play, in a nutshell.

Image of Differences between an abstract and summary of novel

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Conclusion

It is concluded that the article written above will make you understand that abstract and summary are not similar things. 

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