{"id":237,"date":"2010-08-06T07:03:42","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T12:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/2010\/08\/06\/why-abstracts-of-scientific-papers-are-like-haiku\/"},"modified":"2010-08-06T07:03:42","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T12:03:42","slug":"why-abstracts-of-scientific-papers-are-like-haiku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/2010\/08\/06\/why-abstracts-of-scientific-papers-are-like-haiku\/","title":{"rendered":"Why abstracts of scientific papers are like haiku"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading the abstract of my most recent paper, Raymond commented<\/a><\/p>\n

I'm amused by the writing pattern characteristic of abstracts. They always go<\/p>\n

"Statement of something everybody knows. Statement of something nobody knows. I found out the thing nobody knows."<\/p>\n

The part that amuses me is the "Statement of something everybody knows." Why state something everybody knows?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

True.\u00a0 The abstract is a highly stylized form.\u00a0 In general, the conventions are implicitly assumed, but the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics<\/em> even encourages authors to write “structured abstracts<\/a>” making some of them explicit.<\/p>\n

With abstracts, as with haiku or sonnets, the trick is to say something original and striking within the severe constraints of the form.\u00a0 Of course, most abstracts, not excepting my own, fail to do this — as, probably, do most haiku and sonnets.\u00a0 There’s no getting around Sturgeon’s Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Max Tegmark published a paper<\/a> with the abstract in rhymed couplets.\u00a0 I believe it was part of a bet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading the abstract of my most recent paper, Raymond commented I'm amused by the writing pattern characteristic of abstracts. They always go "Statement of something everybody knows. Statement of something nobody knows. I found out the thing nobody knows." The part that amuses me is the "Statement of something everybody knows." Why state something … Continue reading Why abstracts of scientific papers are like haiku<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsbunn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}