What are some good tips and strategies for writing an academic paper?
Keep your abstract short, and write it after everything else. You want somebody to skim your abstract in less than 15 seconds, say ‘hmm that’s interesting’ and then start on the Introduction proper (or at least download your paper for later). An effective abstract can win readers from the start. I’ve seen some monster-sized abstracts that simply defeat the purpose of this mini-section; it’s meant to be a hook, not a firehose. 200 words is a reasonable limit. Anything longer comes off clunky and long-winded. Writing the abstract after the rest of the paper is complete will help you crystallize the work better without gushing/rambling.