Comments on: How (not) to write an abstract http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/ Security Research, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:43:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: yishuai http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-22054 yishuai Fri, 18 May 2007 08:50:37 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-22054 Dear Mr. Markus: I am so impressed with your advise that I can not resist translating its main content to Chinese and sharing it with my friends in my blog. The original link of your post is refered in my post. Please allow me do it. Thanks! Sincerely Yishuai Dear Mr. Markus:

I am so impressed with your advise that I can not resist translating its main content to Chinese and sharing it with my friends in my blog. The original link of your post is refered in my post. Please allow me do it. Thanks!

Sincerely
Yishuai

]]> By: Quinn DuPont http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-21151 Quinn DuPont Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:40:38 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-21151 There is a reason why they are called "computer science" students, and not "humanities" or "arts" students. Seriously though, at the undergraduate level there is exactly one desideratum for humanities students: the ability to clearly articulate an argument. No such similar emphasis exists for the sciences, much less the engineering/IT sciences. Your suggestions for an abstract are exactly right. It does no good to try to pressure a publisher into offering full-text for indexing, since that would defeat the purpose of a well-written abstract. The abstract SHOULD include all the keywords, and SHOULD give a clear distillation of the emphasis of the paper, so a potential reader can assess the likelihood of substantial value arising from reading the full text. There is a reason why they are called “computer science” students, and not “humanities” or “arts” students. Seriously though, at the undergraduate level there is exactly one desideratum for humanities students: the ability to clearly articulate an argument. No such similar emphasis exists for the sciences, much less the engineering/IT sciences.

Your suggestions for an abstract are exactly right. It does no good to try to pressure a publisher into offering full-text for indexing, since that would defeat the purpose of a well-written abstract. The abstract SHOULD include all the keywords, and SHOULD give a clear distillation of the emphasis of the paper, so a potential reader can assess the likelihood of substantial value arising from reading the full text.

]]> By: Mike Bond http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-21132 Mike Bond Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:03:38 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-21132 Peter Lewis writes: <i>But I agree with Markus: it’s annoying when you come across an abstract that reads more like the back of a novel: `will we ever find out whose FuzzyClass classifier was trained by the resulting output?!’</i> This is an interesting comparison. The back covers of books contain just a few sentences very carefully crafted to catch the browser's attention and get them to read the book. It is very telling that some (or indeed many) academics appear not to want this advertising service from an Abstract. But yet we all want our papers to be read and noticed, don't we? Maybe one day papers might have two brief paragraphs on the front? An "advert" and a "synopsis". Mike. Peter Lewis writes:

But I agree with Markus: it’s annoying when you come across an abstract that reads more like the back of a novel: `will we ever find out whose FuzzyClass classifier was trained by the resulting output?!’

This is an interesting comparison. The back covers of books contain just a few sentences very carefully crafted to catch the browser’s attention and get them to read the book.

It is very telling that some (or indeed many) academics appear not to want this advertising service from an Abstract. But yet we all want our papers to be read and noticed, don’t we?

Maybe one day papers might have two brief paragraphs on the front? An “advert” and a “synopsis”.

Mike.

]]> By: Stone Rice Big dot Net :: How to sell your papers :: March :: 2007 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-20774 Stone Rice Big dot Net :: How to sell your papers :: March :: 2007 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:55:17 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-20774 [...] of difficulties in writing a good abstract. Markus Kuhn from lightbluetouchpaper gives some useful advice on writing an [...] [...] of difficulties in writing a good abstract. Markus Kuhn from lightbluetouchpaper gives some useful advice on writing an [...]

]]> By: Andrei Serjantov http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-19514 Andrei Serjantov Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:48:33 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-19514 A good presentation on how to write a research paper from Simon Peyton-Jones http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/writing-a-paper-slides.pdf A good presentation on how to write a research paper from Simon Peyton-Jones

http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/writing-a-paper-slides.pdf

]]> By: Peter Lewis http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-18635 Peter Lewis Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:52:23 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-18635 If ‘young researchers’ and other people interested in finding good sources quickly are spending some time looking through online abstract services, then surely they'll get a good idea about how to write a good abstract quite quickly: a good abstract is one that follows the style of those associated with the useful sources you found easily. So if young researchers are making good use of abstract services, then they ought to have a good (if ostensive...) idea about what an abstract ought to contain. But I agree with Markus: it’s annoying when you come across an abstract that reads more like the back of a novel: ‘will we ever find out whose FuzzyClass classifier was trained by the resulting output?!’ If ‘young researchers’ and other people interested in finding good sources quickly are spending some time looking through online abstract services, then surely they’ll get a good idea about how to write a good abstract quite quickly: a good abstract is one that follows the style of those associated with the useful sources you found easily.

So if young researchers are making good use of abstract services, then they ought to have a good (if ostensive…) idea about what an abstract ought to contain.

But I agree with Markus: it’s annoying when you come across an abstract that reads more like the back of a novel: ‘will we ever find out whose FuzzyClass classifier was trained by the resulting output?!’

]]> By: Domber’s Basecamp » Blog Archive » What’s the difference between an abstract and an introduction? http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-18615 Domber’s Basecamp » Blog Archive » What’s the difference between an abstract and an introduction? Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:10:41 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-18615 [...] but I have doubts about myself in writing “good” abstracts. Markus Kuhn from lightbluetouchpaper.org wrote a nice summary about do’s and dont’s concerning writing abstracts and [...] [...] but I have doubts about myself in writing “good” abstracts. Markus Kuhn from lightbluetouchpaper.org wrote a nice summary about do’s and dont’s concerning writing abstracts and [...]

]]> By: Clive Robinson http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/comment-page-1/#comment-18586 Clive Robinson Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:12:45 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/03/14/how-not-to-write-an-abstract/#comment-18586 Writing any kind of paper is quite a difficult task in itself. Let alone writing the abstract, which is, as you say, the only part that becomes public for free (due to tradition and publishers). As you note just about the only initial contact people will have with your paper is the abstract, often in form of a search result in a citation / abstract database on CD/DVD or online. I used to work for the founding company in that game and I know from experience that the abstracts have many failings, not just the two you mentioned in your last paragraph. Unfortunately citation / abstract databases are the way more and more young researchers are finding papers (often it's the way they are shown by their Uni Learning Resource Center). So the abstract is becoming critical not just to your paper but to your career and it should not be, which is unfortunately an issue that you can lay at the paper publisher's door. In general they only allow the abstract to become public and as they want to minimise their costs they place quite severe limits on its size. To be really useful the abstract, introduction and optionally the conclusion need to be searched and seen by the researcher. In the past with paper publications held in the Uni library this was not too much of an issue as the abstract acted as just a "taster" or pointer, today however this is often not the case and a researcher or student has to use an online or CD service. As paper writers you should be pushing the publishers to make the full text of the paper available to the citation / abstract database companies to provide full text searching. Also you need to push for more than just a 250 word abstract to be made available in the search results, but as a minimum a more length introduction and ideally part or all of the conclusion. Otherwise you will have to change the old maxim "publish or perish" to something new as publishing alone just will not get you "noticed and quoted" any more. Writing any kind of paper is quite a difficult task in itself. Let alone writing the abstract, which is, as you say, the only part that becomes public for free (due to tradition and publishers).

As you note just about the only initial contact people will have with your paper is the abstract, often in form of a search result in a citation / abstract database on CD/DVD or online.

I used to work for the founding company in that game and I know from experience that the abstracts have many failings, not just the two you mentioned in your last paragraph.

Unfortunately citation / abstract databases are the way more and more young researchers are finding papers (often it’s the way they are shown by their Uni Learning Resource Center).

So the abstract is becoming critical not just to your paper but to your career and it should not be, which is unfortunately an issue that you can lay at the paper publisher’s door. In general they only allow the abstract to become public and as they want to minimise their costs they place quite severe limits on its size.

To be really useful the abstract, introduction and optionally the conclusion need to be searched and seen by the researcher. In the past with paper publications held in the Uni library this was not too much of an issue as the abstract acted as just a “taster” or pointer, today however this is often not the case and a researcher or student has to use an online or CD service.

As paper writers you should be pushing the publishers to make the full text of the paper available to the citation / abstract database companies to provide full text searching. Also you need to push for more than just a 250 word abstract to be made available in the search results, but as a minimum a more length introduction and ideally part or all of the conclusion.

Otherwise you will have to change the old maxim “publish or perish” to something new as publishing alone just will not get you “noticed and quoted” any more.

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