.
The site : http://www.aahn.org/abstract.html
includes some interesting "Tips on Writing Abstracts" -- in this case,
abstracts of the sort that you yourself write of your own paper, to convey
the gist of it and to make it sound interesting.
Quote: "the clarity of the writing mirrors your thinking".
Some may think this a "neuro-typical" suggestion; but more likely the
exhortation to strive for clarity comes from long and irritating experience
of reading weak, muddled and uninformative abstracts, as suggested by B.
Duncan.
To be neuro-typical seems to correspond with expressive abilities that are
frustratingly less than the individual would like (and that his or her
hearers or readers might prefer).
The site includes a bibliography on abstract writing (or, with greater
clarity: on writing abstracts). Some of this will be about writing
abstracts of other people's work, in an informative and neutral way, with
inclusion of the relevant keywords for maximum hits by search engines. None
of these tasks are at all easy.
In "information societies" where people are struggling to keep their heads
above vast and increasing floods of data, strong skills in abstracting and
clarity of thought and word are obviously likely to be seen as highly
desirable. This puts at a disadvantage those who lack such skills (though
they may have other skills, desirable in other circumstances).
All these skills can be learnt, practised and improved, once the basic
barriers of literacy have been overcome. The level achieved probably has a
good deal to do with the motivation of the individual, as well as her or
his existing cognitive capacities.
Certainly, the academic world includes a considerable proportion of people
who are far from "typical" in their neural capacities, and in their social
behaviour - but to succeed in the scholarly game there has to be a
willingness both to work hard at thinking and studying, and to persevere in
communicating the results in ways that can be understood by others without
taking too much of their time.
The world's daily total output of research relevant to disability is
greater than can be read by one person in a month; so we fall all further
behind every day. One solution is to scan abstracts, preferably well
written ones!
m99m
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