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Subject:Re: abstracts From:burgamw1 <burgamw1 -at- TEOMAIL -dot- JHUAPL -dot- EDU> Date:Thu, 30 Jun 1994 09:23:08 EST
I agree with Marilynne that you should request the entire paper if possible.
The American National Standard for Writing Abstracts states that an abstract
should contain the following four elements: purpose, methodology, results, and
conclusions presented in the original document. The abstracts of most technical
papers are informative abstracts, which are miniature versions of the full
paper. Edward T. Cremmins in "The Art of Abstracting" (ISI Press, 1982)
describes the four elements as (1) information on purpose, scope, and
methodology comprising the first sentence; (2) those sentence, if any,
containing additional information on purpose, scope, and methodology; (3)
results; and (4) conclusions and recommendations.
