Use abstract for the research essay?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Duke's supplement asks this question:
"If you have participated in any significant research activity outside of school, please provide a brief description and limit your response to one or two paragraphs." </p>

<p>I did a research internship this summer, which is already in the short "activity" essay on the common app. The essay doesn't really go into the science at all, and is more about how the research affected my academic aspirations.</p>

<p>Would it be a good idea to use the abstract from the poster I presented at the end of the summer for the Duke supplement? It's about as far as possible from the narrative style of the essay, which might keep it from seeming like a repeat. It might be too academic, but maybe that's what they are looking for.</p>

2

<p>I’m pretty sure they tell you exactly what they’re asking for: a one or two paragraph description. </p>

<p>Pithiness aside: the research activity question is just a space for you to give them information that might not fit anywhere else. If the information is somewhere else in your application, you don’t really need to repeat it.</p>

3

<p>Yes, abstract is fine. The research essay isn’t a time to show off your creative writing, but rather to just show that you had a genuinely substantive research experience that included more than cleaning glassware.</p>