ÜLEVAATLIKULT SOTSIAALJA HUMANITAARTEADUSLIKU ARTIKLI ANNOTATSIOONIST

An abstract introduces an article and helps readers to decide whether the topic is of interest to them. Therefore it also serves as an advertisement. It is important for authors to be familiar with the structure of an abstract, which is influenced by sectoral practices and the wider cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to find out the structure of abstracts written in Estonian for research articles (humanities and social sciences). A hundred abstracts in total from two Estonian scientific journals, the Estonian Journal of Education (EHA) and the Yearbook of the Estonian Mother Tongue Society (ESA), were analyzed, using Ken Hyland’s move analysis, according to which an abstract has five moves: Introduction, Purpose, Method, Product and Conclusion. The results indicate that articles about social sciences use a standard structure more often than articles about humanities, but both journals also have many similarities. Most abstracts consist of at least three moves: Purpose, Method and Product.