Include both general and specific keywords common within the discipline.
Be brief, summarize. Think bare bones. Abstracts can be no more than 300 words.
Focus on your main claims and argument.
Place your content within a time frame and location (one studio, three years of projects, etc.).
Think of the target reader, in this case design educators.
Abstracts are necessarily dry. No need to entertain.
Use a clear, “no frills,” direct writing style. Avoid bureaucratic prose and passive constructions.
Make sure the topic can be addressed within the time limit offered (15 minutes).
A good summary on writing abstracts can be found here.
Sample Abstract
Discourse This: an investigation into alternative forms of writing on design
I will present design writing as a “literary activity,” a type of writing that falls somewhere between fiction and fact, fantasy and research. Such work implies that the definition of design criticism might expand to include hybrid forms—strategies that draw as much from creative scholarship (the experiential, the speculative, sheer imagination) as from more traditional models of scholarship. I will examine examples of open-ended and unfamiliar approaches to writing about the designed world. Considering work from William Morris to W. A. Dwiggins to Putch Tu, as well as my own work, I will venture that the form of the writing is as important to design thinking as the messages they carry. Just as traditional critical, journalistic or research voices foretell and shape “information,” so alternative approaches set the stage for editorial positions useful to a maturing design discourse.Dominant criticism and history in (graphic) design is written from a relatively small range of perspectives and values. The examples I will cite—variations, or oppositions as is often the case—are signs of a generative, expanding exchange. These contributions not only extend the range of writing but bring a full spectrum of design practice options into view.
I will define the goals of alternative writing as well as its value to the discourse.
