This book makes a relevant contribution to the process of writing abstracts for academic papers, especially dissertations and theses, given the importance of the documentary abstract in the process of dissemination and scientific communication. It explains aspects inherent to the compositional structure of the abstract textual genre, based on Textual Linguistics (TL), Textual Discourse Analysis (TDA) and also on the normative standards prescribed by the Brazilian Standard (NB) 6028 of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards. In effect, it establishes a theoretical relationship with TL and DTA. It also explains how summaries are produced and indicates essential aspects that guarantee a compositional structure that represents the original text, as well as what can be done to understand and qualify this textual genre.