Lecture
An abstract — a brief summary of an event, a book or other publication, as well as a short description of a publication: a manuscript, monograph, article or book. An abstract shows the distinctive features and merits of the work being published. An abstract answers the question: “What does the primary document discuss?” It helps readers orient themselves in making their choice.
The main purpose of an abstract – is not to retell or evaluate an event or work, but to prepare the reader for perceiving it. That is why readers are so often irritated when abstracts are filled with unwanted, elaborate evaluative judgments that impose their own interpretation. Reading the abstract precedes contact with the event or work itself, rather than replacing it. An abstract should arouse interest, not the urge to argue; it is meant to provide the necessary musicological and music-historical points of reference, to ease the path toward engaging with the musical work for everyone who needs it.
The importance of an abstract is determined by the fact that it must attract the buyer's attention to the book, revealing its main content and the distinguishing features of this particular edition of the book. The abstract also reflects additional information that is not included in the bibliographic description.
GOST 7.9 defines an abstract as follows: "An abstract is a brief description of a document in terms of its purpose, content, type, form and other features". The recommended average length of an abstract is 500 printed characters. An abstract for a bookselling bibliographic record should, as a rule, not exceed a paragraph of 10-12 lines. A distinctive feature of an abstract for the book trade is that the main focus is on revealing the content of the book, emphasizing its features that are attractive to the buyer (the presence of illustrations, reference material, appendices, the quality of the printing, etc.).
The abstract is placed after the bibliographic description, starting a new paragraph. An abstract is ALWAYS written in Russian, regardless of the language of the publication's text. The text of the abstract must be concise and clear, free of secondary information.
An abstract MUST NOT CONTAIN:
1. Information from the bibliographic description.
Bibliographers often mistakenly retell in the abstract information already contained in the bibliographic description ("The two-volume edition of Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" contains the novel "Anna Karenina", or: "This volume contains the novels "Ivan" and "The Crusader", even though the titles of the novels included in the volume have already been given in the description).
Repetition in the abstract of the author's name, the book's title, its subtitle information, the compiler's name, the artist's name, the place of publication, the publisher's name, etc. should be avoided if this information is already present in the bibliographic description.
2. Common knowledge.
Common clichés and well-known facts are out of place in an abstract. One should not state in the abstract what everyone already knows. For example: "the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin", "the famous children's poet Agnia Barto", "the book contains poems known since childhood", etc.
3. Special terms and narrow scientific terminology.
An abstract must be understandable to a non-specialist reader, for which commonly accepted or standardized terms and definitions are used.
4. Excerpts from the text, extensive quotations from the book in question.
5. Repetition of the abstract for volumes of a multi-volume set.
When compiling a bibliographic record for individual volumes of a multi-volume set, the same abstract should not be repeated for all volumes. It is more appropriate to reveal the content and distinctive features of each volume.
An abstract may appear in an article or journal. In modern scholarly journals, the abstract is usually placed at the beginning of the article (right after the title, authors and list of keywords), even though it may contain conclusions. An abstract may omit the subject of the action (assuming it is known from context) and contain passive constructions — both verbal and participial.
In a scholarly publication, the abstract usually describes four points of the work carried out:
The length of an abstract depends on the discipline and the publisher's requirements. A typical length ranges from 100 to 500 words, but very rarely more than a page, and sometimes just a few words . In English-language literature, the abstract is often set off with the heading “Abstract”.
Abstracts can conventionally be divided into two groups
abstracts for literary and artistic works;
abstracts for non-literary and non-artistic publications.
Abstracts for literary and artistic works include the following information:
information about the author (affiliation with a particular period, nationality, authorship of other works);
the genre of the work(s);
the main theme and problem of the work, the place and time of the events described;
the intended readership (for children's publications).
The author's name should be mentioned if the abstract is being compiled for a collection containing works by different authors, or if the author has published under different pseudonyms. Information about the compilers may also be given if they are well-known figures or engaged in literary activity.
The genre of the work is indicated in the abstract in expanded form, for example, "science fiction novella", "lyric poems". Works may be: psychological, detective, historical, fantasy, autobiographical, gothic, fairy-tale, mythological, mystical, romance, war-themed, etc.
The main theme, problem, place and time of the events described are reflected in the abstract based on a brief acquaintance with the work. A well-written publisher's abstract may also be used as a basis. It is advisable to indicate in the abstract the general storyline, the intrigue, the plot setup. For example: "In the new detective novel by a contemporary English author, the action takes place in an old castle in the south of Scotland. The heir to a million-dollar fortune is murdered…",
It is useful to indicate in the abstract the date the work was created, if it is given in the publication. For example: "Written in 1963, this science fiction novel by a Russian writer…".
When preparing an abstract for a collection by a single author, the abstract should give the titles of two or three works, or the most well-known works, if they are not given in the bibliographic description. For example: "This volume by the American writer includes the historical novel "Washington" and the psychological novella "Anna".
When preparing an abstract for a collection of works by different authors, the names of the authors and titles of the works are indicated in the abstract only if they are not given in the bibliographic description. For example: "The collection publishes science fiction stories by German writers. Among them……".
An abstract for publications other than literary and artistic works includes the following information:
a brief disclosure of the subject of the publication (reflecting the specifics of the content, the general subject matter or the general concept);
differences between the publication and other, related publications on the same subject and/or previous editions of works by the same author (novelty of content, coverage of unknown facts or originality of their interpretation);
the intended purpose and readership of the publication;
the type of publication (per GOST 7.60) or the genre of the work being published;
any change in the title of the document or the author collective, and the year of publication of the previous edition (in the case of a reissue).
An abstract for audiovisual and electronic publications may additionally contain a description of the medium and the equipment used for playback.
A brief disclosure of the subject should be carried out by indicating the branch, field of science or economy (headings of the UDC classification may be used as an aid). Usually the specific subject of study is given in the title of the book in the bibliographic description, and there is no need to repeat it in the abstract. The disclosure of the subject is organically linked to information about the novelty of the publication. For example: "This textbook presents an original concept of the historical development of Russia…".
The intended purpose and readership of the publication is indicated in the abstract only if this is noted in the book. Phrases such as "for a wide range of readers" or "for fans of science fiction, detective stories, history buffs, those interested, etc." SHOULD NOT be used in the abstract.
The type of publication or the genre of the work being published is determined on the basis of the publication's imprint data (on the last page) or independently (per GOST 7.60). The type and genre must be indicated when compiling an abstract for official, scholarly, and regulatory-technical publications. Information indicating that a publication is a textbook, a production manual, or a practical guide is usually already contained in the description and does not need to be repeated in the abstract.
Information about the author should be included in the abstract only when the author holds an academic degree or title of academician, professor, doctor or candidate of sciences, or is a well-known scholar or practitioner. For example: "A Doctor of Medical Sciences and professor offers a new method of health improvement…", "This manual was written by a team from the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences under the editorship of academician….".
The presence of illustrations is also noted (if they are unique or a distinctive feature of the publication), as is the presence of appendices (traditional, audiovisual, electronic).
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