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10 TITLES AND ABSTRACTS "Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon .... Simplify, simplify." WILLIAM ZINSSER Titles and abstracts are the parts of your paper that will be read most often, and they may be the most difficult sections to compose effectively. What Zinsser (1998) says about clutter and simplicity is particularly true for titles and abstracts. They serve two purposes for your readers: (1) to disclose the basic information that the paper itself contains and (2) to help readers decide whether to read the entire paper. Together, the title and the abstract must help readers quickly iden- tify literature that they want to read. As you write them, keep the purpose and audience clearly in mind, and keep your titles and abstracts as uncluttered and simple as possible. TITLES The title is the first impression you make on your audience. It should attract attention, but most important, it should be informative. The title may be the most notable phrase you write. Many people will read it, but few will read the rest of your paper. It should use: 1. The most precise words possible 2. Words that indicate the main point of the paper 3. Words that lend themselves to indexing the subject 111

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10 TITLES AND ABSTRACTS

"Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous

frills and meaningless jargon .... Simplify, simplify."

WILLIAM ZINSSER

Titles and abstracts are the parts of your paper that will be read most often, and they may be the most difficult sections to compose effectively. What Zinsser (1998) says about clutter and simplicity is particularly true for titles and abstracts. They serve two purposes for your readers: (1) to disclose the basic information that the paper itself contains and (2) to help readers decide whether to read the entire paper. Together, the title and the abstract must help readers quickly iden- tify literature that they want to read. As you write them, keep the purpose and audience clearly in mind, and keep your titles and abstracts as uncluttered and simple as possible.

T I T L E S

The title is the first impression you make on your audience. It should attract attention, but most important, it should be informative. The title may be the most notable phrase you write. Many people will read it, but few will read the rest of your paper. It should use:

1. The most precise words possible 2. Words that indicate the main point of the paper 3. Words that lend themselves to indexing the subject

111

112 Titles and Abstracts

One technique for creating a title is to write the objectives first; then write the rough title, sometimes called the working title. Go on to write the entire paper, and then rewrite the title. Write and revise the abstract, and then check the title again. It may need another revision.

The most common problems with titles perhaps are in their length and in the selection and arrangement of words. Be sure your title will make sense to someone not familiar with your subject. Use words that other readers might consult to find information such as your paper contains and use them in a sequence that is not ambiguous or misleading. The first source for key words for indexing services is the title. Study your title for unnecessary words and put the most important ones first. Provide adequate information, but keep your title relatively short. Eight to twelve words is a good range to work in. Scientific titles should not be newspaper headlines. Scientific readers are not looking for a journalistic sensation story; they want information. A full sentence with an active verb is usually not a good title. Just be informative; let the title tell what your paper is about.

The journal may also request a running title, or running head. This is simply an abbreviated form of the title that appears as a headnote on journal pages beyond the first page of an article. For more detailed information on titles, check Day (1998). No, study Day on titles; his remarks will give you a feel for what to do with your own title. Also, take a look at the versions of a title in Appendix 8.

A B S T R A C T S

The term abstract is used loosely to refer to almost any brief account of a longer paper. Informative abstracts used with scientific journal articles are a more- structured form than this loose definition permits. With reference to BIOSIS Guide to Abstracts and to the American National Standard for Writing Abstracts, the CBE Style Manual (1983) distinguishes between the other brief forms and abstracts that are used with journal publications. What that manual describes as an abstract is called an informative abstract by Day (1998) and others, who compare it to a descriptive abstract. To complicate definitions further, some societies will request extended abstracts for publication in proceedings. These appear to be much shorter than a full paper but can contain more data than the informative abstract because the publisher is providing more space for the publication. Examine a previously published issue of proceedings to determine what is expected if your society requests an extended abstract.

The descriptive abstract, or indicative abstract, describes the contents of a paper but does not give a precise condensation of the information contained therein. Its contents would be relatively worthless if it were not accompanied

Abstracts 113

by the report itself. It may be the best form for some reports and, similar to a table of contents, is helpful for a reader in deciding whether to read the entire paper. But one must read the entire paper for substance. Descriptive abstracts contain too little information and detail to substitute for the informative abstract that most refereed journals expect.

Don't let all this fuss over definitions misguide you. Just know that these strange breeds exist, and then recognize that for journal publications you need the informative abstract. Study the journal to which you will submit a man- uscript to obtain specific instructions and to read examples of published abstracts. You will find a few differences between journals, but any informative abstract must serve several purposes:

1. To show the reader very quickly whether the full report is valuable for further study

2. To be extracted (abstracted) from the full report for separate publication

3. To furnish terminology to help in literature searches by individuals or by literature retrieval specialists in indexes and electronic databases

To serve these purposes, the abstract must be a short, concise, but completely self-explanatory report on a scientific investigation. Like the report itself, the abstract must include:

1. The research objectives and rationale for conducting the investigation

2. The basic methods used 3. The results and significant conclusions that can be drawn

Notice that the two parts generally included in the full paper that are omitted from the abstract are the literature review and discussion. A concluding state- ment may give an interpretation to the results, but any lengthy discussion or speculation is out of place. Although some journals limit the length even more, many style sheets specify that the abstract should not exceed 200 to 250 words or 3% to 5% of the length of the paper itself and that the form should be one paragraph. Even for less formal presentations such as papers presented at meetings or published in nontechnical forms, the abstract should still be a tech- nical, concise, complete report. If such precision is out of place, an informal annotation or other summary should be substituted. Study the sample abstracts in Appendix 9. McMillan (2001) also presents and discusses some examples of abstracts.

Societies sometimes publish lists of what should be included in or omitted from an abstract. Let me try to hit upon some main points and refer you to the

114 Titles and Abstracts

CBE Style Manual (1983) and Day (1998) for what the abstract should include. Along with the essentials (i.e., research objectives, basic methods, results), the abstract should fully summarize the contents of the paper in as much detail and as few words as possible. In being concise, maintain clarity and avoid a tele- graphic style that is hard to read. Because it is often read hurriedly in scanning the literature, it should flow smoothly. Emphasize the main points and avoid long lists of information. In presenting the main points, be as specific as possi- ble. For example, say "20 and 40 kg ha I of nitrogen" and not just "two rates of nitrogen." Keep the tone strictly objective; avoid any loaded language that would suggest speculation. Provide any scientific information, such as scientific names for species, that is important for a complete understanding of your subject. Avoid abbreviations that are not immediately evident to the scientific community, and use no allusions to the literature or to any other material that would require a footnote or pursuit of external information.

When you think about it, all these do's and don't's for the abstract simply emphasize its purpose: to be a concise, complete report of your work that can stand alone without further explanation. In addition to the references listed here, study titles and abstracts in the journals in your discipline and any instructions your publisher provides.

R e f e r e n c e s

Council of Biology Editors (CBE) (1983). CBE Style Manual, 5th ed. CBE, Bethesda, MD. Day, R. A. (1998). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 5th ed. Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ. McMillan, V. E. (2001). Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 3rd ed. Bedford/St. Martin's,

Boston. Zinsser, W. (1998). On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction, 6th ed.

HarperCollins, New York.