See our handout on ' What Goes in a Thesis Abstract? An Executive Summary?' for an overview of standard content and length-then, for more information and examples, read on! Abstractsįor a more detailed explanation of abstracts, check out our infographics, tailored to your discipline:Īn abstract is a brief encapsulation of a document. Executive summaries and abstracts both capture the essence of a project in a shorter form, but with differing levels of detail: an abstract is a highly condensed overview of the document, while an executive summary is a standalone version of the thesis in miniature.