While consideration of the Title etc was intense but relatively brief, I found the revision of the Abstract much more challenging. I should have been ready for the challenge given that I knew I had to conflate 40,000 into about 300, but somehow that had been lost in translation. There is lots of advice and guidance and books written about what constitutes a good Abstract but in practice, I feel it needs to be a personal yet professional piece that briefly explains the research I have undertaken and the conclusions I have reached. It is also intended to provide a potential reader of the thesis with a clear articulation of the research such that they can decide whether to download the whole document to inform their own work. I had received some very helpful comments from my supervisors on how I might improve what I had produced to date, but the first redraft emerging from their comments seemed too distant. Having taken on board the need to ensure that I had explicitly included the research questions, the methodology and methods, and gaps in knowledge I had addressed in my research and the key insights, it began to come together but for me, it remained lacking in authenticity. By now, I was on draft 3.4, and still not happy with the result but fully recognised the need to get this short piece of text absolutely right from my point of view. I finally decided that I needed to find a compromise while taking on board the comments from my supervisors. This meant that the abstract has become rather vanilla, but in my view, serves its purpose. That is not to say that it will not be revised and refined further as the final draft comes together!
