WRITING ABSTRACTS IN ENGLISH – GUIDELINES FOR SERBIAN AUTHORS

Abstract

Abstracts generally summarize key points of research studies, and as such,
their main purpose is to attract the attention of potential readers. Thus, they should be
well-written, concise, clear, and informative. This paper aims to provide basic
guidelines for writing a good abstract in English, focusing mainly on linguistic
aspects. Also, the paper addresses some common abstract-writing mistakes resulting
from Serbian-English language differences that are usually overlooked or
unrecognized by Serbian authors and available proofreading tools. The examples
come from a corpus of 71 abstracts written in English by Serbian authors for the 11th
International Scientific Conference Special Education and Rehabilitation Today in
2021. They illustrate some frequent errors, ways to correct them, and suggestions on
how to achieve greater clarity and coherence in English sentences. Both versions
(before and after the proofreading process) were analyzed. It was observed that
sentences and structures in English abstracts were significantly affected by the rules,
sentence patterns, and flexibility of the Serbian language.