The fundamental ingredients for a good abstract can and usually do include the following:

1. Subject—The literary works being discussed, their creators and dates
2. Claim and significance—announcement about the importance of your approach to the subject
3. Theoretical framework—Is there a theoretical framework you are using to approach this subject? Oftentimes this is suggested rather than explicitly stated
4. Argument—what your analysis of the subject reveals about the subject, current approaches to the subject, etc.
5. Proofs—your evidence for your argument, or the elements of the subject that you analyze (textual passages, for instance).

Example:

Making History in Q Henry V

This essay argues that the publication of Q Henry V (1600, 1602, 1619) marked an attempt to promote the category of dramatic “history” for a readership interested in a new kind of book: the chronicle abridgment.  Less than half the length of the Folio version we read and see performed today, the quarto text is now widely regarded as a reduced version of the play that was prepared by Shakespeare’s theater company for performance.  I consider a range of texts that help us to re-examine this performance hypothesis, beginning with abridged chronicles, but also popular histories, news reports, as well as title pages and paratextual material from other playbooks based on British history.  Previous investigations into the origins of this quarto have ignored how the conditions of early modern book trade shaped the production of theatrical playtexts into print.  What emerges from analysis of this evidence, I argue, is a different view of Q Henry V: a playbook that owes its existence not to theatrical abridgement, but to reader demand for history books, a genre that this quarto helped to redefine.