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The study is expected to help students improve the quality of English abstract when they write their graduation papers.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Studies on academic abstracts
In this rapidly developing society, people need high efficiency, they hope to master useful information of the papers within the limited time. A good abstract can help the readers get to know the content of a paper quickly. Therefore, the author introduces some basic knowledge about abstract before studying the abstract translation, such as the definition of abstract, the characteristics and functions of English abstract.
2.1.1 The definition of abstract
An abstract is always placed at the beginning of a report, thesis, research papers, journal articles and dissertations. It is a direct window for readers to understand the main content of the paper. On the question of what an abstract is, many researchers and departments have given the relevant concept of identification. As early as in 1993, Bhatia stated, "an abstract, as commonly understood, is a description or factual summary of the much longer report, and is meant to give the readers an exact and concise knowledge of the full article." (Bhatia 181) According to the national standard GB6447-86, "abstract is to provide a synopsis of the contents of documents for the purpose, without any comment and additional explanation, concise, accurate description of important elements of literature essay".
The above definitions indicate that the definition of abstracts has developed with the standardization for academic publication. And, we can obviously find that the abstract is to introduce the gist of article with polished language and let readers understand the general picture of the full text. In a word, an abstract is basically a highly condensed summary of a full document, which is an independent discourse and shows the key information of the following text.
2.1.2 The characteristics and functions of abstract
As an important part of academic papers, English abstracts have its special characteristics and functions.
Due to the English readers generally do not understand Chinese, English abstracts will become the only information source for them. Therefore, the information must be complete, which includes research purpose, methods, results, and conclusions. In this way, even if the reader cannot read Chinese, they can also have a more complete understanding. At present, most of authors usually only pay attention to word equivalence between Chinese and English. This can make English abstract words cumbersome, repetitive, sluggish, and long. Similarly, some authors think that the two abstract contents almost on the line, they arbitrarily delete the key content or optionally supplement no mentioned contents so that it is easy to cause a shift of the focus of abstract, even deviate from the theme. Therefore, English abstracts should be expressed rigorously and comprehensively, cannot be arbitrarily add and delete. In view of this, the English abstract has integrity, simplicity and consistency.文献综述
The main function of the abstract is to save time to know the main content of various materials and to decide whether to read the original text for readers. For those English readers who cannot read Chinese, English abstract will be one of the most important information sources for them to read about academic papers. Good English abstract provides sufficient information for readers and lets the reader promptly and accurately understand the basic content of the article. Other than that, it is the bridge and medium of knowledge communication, academic exchange and cooperation. With the wide application of computer, multimedia, network and other high-tech, English abstract can be retrieved and utilized by readers through the wide web. Standardized English abstract of thesis will be helpful for the international exchange of science and technology, hence to extend the influence of scientific and technological achievements to the international world. In addition, good English abstracts are available to increase the search and citation opportunities for journals and papers, to attract readers, and to expand the influence that cannot be ignored.