Report Guide: F) Abstract
If you have written your thesis in Finnish, follow the instructions for the English abstract mentioned in the Finnish report guide. The English abstract is, in that case, significantly shorter than if the whole thesis is written in English. Your Finnish abstract will act as your maturity test in this case.
See more detailed instructions for writing the abstract for theses written in English below.
Abstract as the maturity test
The decree states that every higher education student must write a maturity test as part of their degree. As of 1 January 2026, in Bachelor’s degree programmes, the abstract of the thesis serves as the maturity test and is approved by the thesis supervisor. The language of the maturity test varies depending on your school education language prior to your TAMK studies.
Maturity test: Finnish of Swedish as a school education language
If you have completed your school education in Finnish or Swedish, the abstract, which works as a maturity test, is written in that language, even if the thesis is written in English.
In this case, follow the instructions given in the Finnish report guide for the “tiivistelmä” and the abstract instructions given below for the English abstract – you need to include both in the thesis. Send your English abstract to be checked by the language teacher. Your Finnish or Swedish “tiivistelmä” will serve as your maturity test and will not be sent to a language teacher for review.
Maturity test: School education language other than Finnish or Swedish
If your school education was in a language other than Finnish or Swedish, or if you completed your school education abroad, you may choose to write the abstract in Finnish or in English. Follow the instructions given on this page when writing your abstract in English, and on the Finnish report guide if writing your abstract in Finnish. This abstract will serve as your maturity test.
The abstract serving as the maturity test is not sent to a language teacher for review.
The use of artificial intelligence is not permitted at any stage when writing the abstract that serves as a maturity test.
Other guidelines
If the thesis is written in pairs or in a group, each student writes their own abstract. The students decide which abstract is published as part of the thesis report.
The supervisor may require the maturity test to be written under supervision if, for a justified reason, they consider that the student has not become sufficiently familiar with the field of the thesis and/or that the student’s professional language skills would not otherwise be demonstrated clearly enough. A maturity test written under supervision is checked by a language teacher.
For a Master’s thesis written in English, the abstract is written according to the instructions below and sent to the language teacher to be checked, as the maturity tests are handled differently in Master’s Degree Programmes.
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Submitting your abstract
When submitting your abstract to be checked by an English teacher, please use an editable format (.docx etc.), not PDF. Wait until the teacher has checked your abstract before submitting your thesis so you can make any corrections suggested. Include also the name of your degree programme and the title of your thesis.
You need to allow the teacher 7 working days for the process, so do not leave submitting your abstract too late. Note that there is only one round of corrections, so only submit the finished abstract (no drafts.)
Abstract writing instructions
Abstract is a simply and fluently written summary of the thesis. Its length is one page at maximum. The reader of the abstract gains a general view on the thesis and after reading it they can decide if they want to read it further. No text references are used.
Titles in abstracts
Main words of the thesis title are written with initial letters capitalised. The initial letters of most prepositions, articles etc. are not capitalised. As a general rule, any word 4 letters or longer is written with a capital first letter (Plan, Engineering, With, Beyond etc.) - even if it is a preposition. Any shorter articles and prepositions are written with a small first letter (a, the, on, in, for etc.) - unless of course it is the first word of the title, then it is capitalised. The exception to this rule are pronouns (Your, They etc.), which are always written with a capital first letter in titles.
There is no full stop after a title.
Colloquial headings are to be replaced with formal style if the author is not sure of their style.
Waste Management Plan for Hospitality Trade Fair in 2025
Promoting Young People's Emotional Wellbeing in Secondary Education
Style
The abstract should be written in a formal, neutral, consisce, declaratory style, passive voice, unless the topic of the thesis demands otherwise. Too long sentences are not reader friendly and may require several readings. The abstract does not list the research questions.
The abstract is written in the passive voice: expressions such as "I" or "my" are not used, unless absolutely required by the topic:
More attention has been paid to…
The data were gathered by conducting a survey among customers…
The data were analysed by applying…
Different methods were compared…
The abstract consists of 3-4 paragraphs. Single-sentence paragraphs should be avoided.
The abstract for a research-based thesis could be as follows:
- background of the thesis
- aim, goal and tasks, client or collaboration partner
- the method used and the progress of research
- results
- conclusions, suggestions for development
The abstract for a practice-based thesis could be as follows:
- aim, goal and research problems or tasks, client or collaboration partner
- answers to research problems or tasks
- description of the end result, meeting the client’s needs
- future when the client will start using the end result, suggestions for development
The abstract is followed by 2-5 keywords, in order to facilitate the data retrieval. The key words are written in the order of importance.
Abstract tenses
The abstract should mainly be written in the past tense to describe the contents of the thesis. The present tense is, however, used when it is a question of universally valid results or conclusions.
Objective/purpose (past tense)
The objective of this study was to gather information about…
The purpose of this thesis was to collect information on…
Approach, methodology (past or present tense)
This study was carried out as a project.
The data were collected from 17 paediatric patients and 29 parents.
The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
The theoretical section explores…
The empirical part consists of…
Key results/findings (past or present tense)
The respondents stated that…
The majority of participants believed that…
These results suggest that …
Conclusions/discussion (present tense)
The findings indicate that…
Further research is required to…
Furthermore, preventive measures should be adopted to reduce all types of abuse…
To help prevent obesity, strategies are needed to decrease adolescents’ sedentary leisure time…
Formality and details
Contracted word forms are not used: doesn’t -> does not; didn’t -> did not.
No comma in front of that-word!
The results show that the respondents were satisfied with…
The s-genitive is used in connection with people and of-genitive in connection with things.
The customers’ opinions gave interesting information for the new menu of the restaurant.