Musings of an Abstractor

This commentary reflects on abstracting and the role of abstracts in scholarship. By definition, an abstract represents a nonevalualive summary of a piece of writing. Nonjudgmental treatment of another author's work calls for restraint and objectivity. A book or article can be abstracted by telling the reader what the work is about. A superior way of abstracting an article calls for reflection on the author's thesis and the manner in which he explicates that thesis. Then, with a kind of gestalt, the abstractor recreates in capsule form the body of the longer work. One approaches the writing of a review quite differently. In a review the reader learns more about the reviewer than about the author because it is the reviewer's self that stalks the scene. An abstractor speaks for the author, reinforcing the author's image and stance. The artistic nature of abstracting, abstracting as a task of maturity, and reasons for abstracting are also briefly discussed.