Tiivistelmän

Tiivistelmä is a Finnish noun meaning a concise summary or abstract of a text, such as an article, thesis, or report. The form tiivistelmän is the genitive singular, used to indicate possession or association, for example in phrases like "tutkimuksen tiivistelmän kirjoittaminen" (writing the abstract of the study) or "tiivistelmän pituus" (the length of the abstract). In Finnish scholarly writing, tiivistelmä is a standard component at the beginning of many works.

There are two main types of tiivistelmä in Finnish academic writing: informatiivinen tiivistelmä (informative abstract) and kuvaileva tiivistelmä (descriptive abstract). An informative abstract summarizes the aims, methods, main results, and conclusions of the work; a descriptive abstract outlines the scope and content without detailing findings. Typical length for an informative abstract is approximately 150–250 words, though requirements vary by discipline and publication.

Writing style is neutral and concise. Abstracts are usually in third person and written in Finnish, providing enough information for a reader to understand the study without reading the full text; for scientific articles they should present core results and conclusions. In many Finnish journals and universities, abstracts in English (and sometimes Swedish) accompany the Finnish tiivistelmä, reflecting bilingual or multilingual publication practices.

Origin and related terms: tiivistelmä is derived from the verb tiivistää "to condense" and denotes a condensed version of a text. The possessive form tiivistelmän is used to indicate "of the abstract" or "the abstract’s" in Finnish sentences.