Abstract Writing Hints
Here are some helpful hints on writing abstracts to help you avoid your abstract being given a worse grade by the reviewers than it might otherwise get.
Your abstract will be reviewed by a number of experts. Since the talk submissions are blind-reviewed, they only thing they have to go on is the quality of the abstract. Help them to regard your abstract favorably by:
creating an abstract of between 400 - 500 words. Abstracts that are too short don't give enough information for the reviewers to judge the quality properly.
ensuring any technical terms and acronyms are used correctly. If these are wrong, the reviewers will assume you don't know what you're talking about and grade appropriately.
checking grammar and spelling. Reviewers appreciate a well-crafted, grammatically correct abstract and will assume someone who can write a good abstract can also write a good talk.
being clear about the expected audience. We welcome talks for all technical and managerial levels, whether the expected audience consists of XML novices or gurus. The abstract should make it clear who is expected to benefit most from hearing the talk.
not submitting a product pitch except in the product presentation track. The reviewers will not grade product pitches favorably.