An abstract is a summary of a work of art or scientific work. It is necessary in order to attract the attention of the buyer or to give potential readers an idea of the problems that this or that work concerns. Annotations are drawn up in accordance with state standards. It often contains information that is not in the bibliographic description. In this case, the abstract should be very short, from one paragraph for a work of art to a page for a scientific work.
Necessary
- - Job;
- - paper;
- - pen;
- - a computer with a text editor.
Instructions
Step 1
Read the work. Determine whether it belongs to fiction or other literature. If you have a work of art in front of you, then the abstract should contain brief information about the author. Briefly write in what era he worked, in what country, in what language and what other works he wrote.
Step 2
Write down which genre this work belongs to. Define its main problematic and topic. You can also indicate to which reader the book is addressed. This is especially important for children's books and specialty literature.
Step 3
Check out the bibliographic description. If it is an abstract of a work of art, briefly state its content. It is most convenient to compose an annotation by eliminating the excess. So, first, write about the book in exactly the same way as you would write it in a school essay.
Step 4
The description is likely to be larger than necessary. The abstract should not exceed 500 characters. Therefore, remove all unnecessary from it. There should not be the name of the author, illustrator, editor, publisher or work. In some cases, the author's name is acceptable. For example, if the book is composed of the works of different writers or poets. In all other cases, this is indicated in the bibliographic description. Remove the titles of sections and chapters. The potential reader will find this in the table of contents.
Step 5
Take away well-known facts. The annotation should not contain expressions like “great Russian scientist” or “famous author of detective novels”. Remove large quotes. If possible, quoting should be avoided altogether.
Step 6
Avoid highly specialized vocabulary in abstracts for technical and scientific books. Even the reader who has never faced the problem the work is devoted to should understand what the work is about. Briefly define what this work is about. Write about the branch of science or industry in which the book can be used.
Step 7
Point out the differences between this book and others on the same topic. What is the novelty of the author's idea? How important are the issues for a particular industry disclosed? Has this author had other works on the same topic?
Step 8
Indicate the purpose of this work. Tell us about the audience for which it is intended. It is also necessary to draw the attention of a potential reader to the genre of the work and the type of publication. The latter is determined according to the state standard. If the work was published earlier, indicate its previous title, as well as the presence of corrections and additions. It can also be a stereotypical publication.
Step 9
In the annotation to the scientific work, information about the author can be given. But this should be done only if the author has an appropriate scientific degree, is a recognized authority in this area. Annotation for a scientific and technical book, as well as for a work of art, is printed with a red line in solid text.
Step 10
An abstract is an obligatory component of any scientific work, be it a school abstract or a dissertation. True, in this case it differs somewhat from the annotation for the published book. A larger volume is allowed - up to 1500 characters. Two languages are possible - Russian and another European. Most often it is English.
Step 11
In such an annotation, it is necessary to indicate, first of all, the purpose of the work. Most often, the definition of the goal is an amended or expanded title of the work itself. At the same time, there should be few highly specialized vocabulary.
Step 12
Define the object and subject of research. One and the same object can be the subject of research for representatives of different sciences. The object is what surrounds the researcher. The subject determines from the point of view of which branch of knowledge the scientist looks at the object. For example, the object may be the environment, but for a physician, ecologist or geographer, it will be a different subject of research.
Step 13
Such an annotation must be formatted according to certain requirements. As a rule, it is placed on the last two pages of the work, after the bibliographic index. It should also indicate the educational institution or scientific organization, the name of the author, the year and year of writing the work.
