Overview and introduction are both present in the beginning of written works. While overview are present in scholarly articles, an introduction is present in all types of writing.
Overview or Abstracts
Overview also known as abstract informs the reader about the major content of the paper. "Your goal in writing an abstract is literally to abstract or extract the essential information from the things that you read (Taylor, 2009)” Many scholarly articles are very long and people do not have time to go through all the pagers of the paper to understand the content. Thus, an abstract play an important role in informing the reader about what the paper is talking about in the first page. This helps save time of the reader. Thesis papers and journals are some of the writings where you will find abstracts. An informative abstract needs to have the following in the mentioned structure.
Purpose/Objective: The first sentence must give the reader a notion of what the paper is about. For example starting with, "The purpose of this study is to investigate the connection between the urban population proximity to jungles with wild squirrel population and the incidence of rabies in domestic animals. (Wordvice, 2018)” Be direct and informative about it.
Methods used for the study: Mention only the main study method used and be specific. For example 'Using a cross sectional analysis, this study analyzed the incidence of rabies in Brazilian squirrels from 2007-2015 and measured these results against a similar study conducted in 2011 (Wordvice, 2018)”
Results of the study: Focus on the most significant part of your findings. Was you finding as you had predicted it or did you find something unexpected. Only writing the main finding will help pull the reader in. For example "The proximity of a dense urban population to Brazilian squirrel habitats was found to play the greatest role in facilitating the spread of rabies to domestic animals. (Wordvice, 2018)”
What were the conclusions: Do not miss out on the conclusion. Your conclusion should connect the reader to the main problem that you have mentioned in the beginning. You must connect what the results means to the problem statement. For example "This study definitely answers the question regarding the correlation between proximity to Brazilian squirrels and the transmission of rabies to pets. Further studies are needed to establish casual relationships and develop preventive measures. (Wordvice, 2018)”
As a word of advice, abstract is easier to form after the main body is completed. Since the abstract requires all the details you have already written in the body, you just need to extract the essentials, summarize and present it. Avoid copying and pasting from the body.
Introduction
Abstract is a type of an introduction but as compared to an abstract is not descriptive in nature. In an introduction the writer does not disclose information but rather gives less insight and hooks the reader to follow up with the reading. Thus the introduction is more creative and are found in story book, novels and any other writings aside from scholarly articles.
Conclusion
Overview is very informative as it answers the 5W and H. Who, what, when, where, why and how of the paper. These are based on research and facts. It provides a basis for researchers to go through multiple papers just based on the abstract. Whereas the introduction is generally not based on facts and does not inform the reader if it is reliable. It is there to entice the reader into reading the rest of the paper and can be vague leading to assumptions. Thus an overview or abstract is more preferable to an introduction as it is more informative and shares the major essence of the study and lets the reader choose to study or not.
Reference
Taylor, D. (2009, October 1). How to Write an APA Abstract . Retrieved from YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=_C7YhazRhtA
Wordvice. (2018, Feb 8). How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper . Retrieved from YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=JMEnRBss6V4
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Overview and introduction are both present in the beginning of written works. While overview are present in scholarly articles, an introduction is present in all types of writing.
Overview or Abstracts
Overview also known as abstract informs the reader about the major content of the paper. "Your goal in writing an abstract is literally to abstract or extract the essential information from the things that you read (Taylor, 2009)” Many scholarly articles are very long and people do not have time to go through all the pagers of the paper to understand the content. Thus, an abstract play an important role in informing the reader about what the paper is talking about in the first page. This helps save time of the reader. Thesis papers and journals are some of the writings where you will find abstracts. An informative abstract needs to have the following in the mentioned structure.
Purpose/Objective: The first sentence must give the reader a notion of what the paper is about. For example starting with, "The purpose of this study is to investigate the connection between the urban population proximity to jungles with wild squirrel population and the incidence of rabies in domestic animals. (Wordvice, 2018)” Be direct and informative about it.
Methods used for the study: Mention only the main study method used and be specific. For example 'Using a cross sectional analysis, this study analyzed the incidence of rabies in Brazilian squirrels from 2007-2015 and measured these results against a similar study conducted in 2011 (Wordvice, 2018)”
Results of the study: Focus on the most significant part of your findings. Was you finding as you had predicted it or did you find something unexpected. Only writing the main finding will help pull the reader in. For example "The proximity of a dense urban population to Brazilian squirrel habitats was found to play the greatest role in facilitating the spread of rabies to domestic animals. (Wordvice, 2018)”
What were the conclusions: Do not miss out on the conclusion. Your conclusion should connect the reader to the main problem that you have mentioned in the beginning. You must connect what the results means to the problem statement. For example "This study definitely answers the question regarding the correlation between proximity to Brazilian squirrels and the transmission of rabies to pets. Further studies are needed to establish casual relationships and develop preventive measures. (Wordvice, 2018)”
As a word of advice, abstract is easier to form after the main body is completed. Since the abstract requires all the details you have already written in the body, you just need to extract the essentials, summarize and present it. Avoid copying and pasting from the body.
Introduction
Abstract is a type of an introduction but as compared to an abstract is not descriptive in nature. In an introduction the writer does not disclose information but rather gives less insight and hooks the reader to follow up with the reading. Thus the introduction is more creative and are found in story book, novels and any other writings aside from scholarly articles.
Conclusion
Overview is very informative as it answers the 5W and H. Who, what, when, where, why and how of the paper. These are based on research and facts. It provides a basis for researchers to go through multiple papers just based on the abstract. Whereas the introduction is generally not based on facts and does not inform the reader if it is reliable. It is there to entice the reader into reading the rest of the paper and can be vague leading to assumptions. Thus an overview or abstract is more preferable to an introduction as it is more informative and shares the major essence of the study and lets the reader choose to study or not.
Reference
Taylor, D. (2009, October 1). How to Write an APA Abstract . Retrieved from YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=_C7YhazRhtA
Wordvice. (2018, Feb 8). How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper . Retrieved from YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=JMEnRBss6V4