Guidelines for text reduction were developed and evaluated to advance the art of manually preparing informative abstracts. The study was intended to: (1) develop guidelines that result in abstracts which provide maximal support to abstract-users, and (2) develop these guidelines so that they result in reliable, i.e., consistent, abstracts of scientific/technical material. The abstracting procedure, and Abstracting Form and associated instructions, produces reasonably consistent abstracts. An expert judge rated 13 subsections of six technical papers prepared by three different abstracters as 88% consistent, i.e., contained identical information. The abstracts prepared were a substantial reduction of the original text. Considering the six abstracts used in a performance test (judged as containing the most information, but not necessarily the longest) mean percentage reductions obtained were: 47% reduction of words, 28% reduction of figures, and 27% reduction of equations. Level of performance, as measured by accuracy on use-tests, supported by abstracts was equivalent to that supported by original text, regardless of test time restriction. However, total test time required was less using abstracts than with full text. (Author).

Automatic Indexing and Abstracting of Document Texts summarizes the latest techniques of automatic indexing and abstracting, and the results of their application. It also places the techniques in the context of the study of text, manual indexing and abstracting, and the use of the indexing descriptions and abstracts in systems that select documents or information from large collections. Important sections of the book consider the development of new techniques for indexing and abstracting. The techniques involve the following: using text grammars, learning of the themes of the texts including the identification of representative sentences or paragraphs by means of adequate cluster algorithms, and learning of classification patterns of texts. In addition, the book is an attempt to illuminate new avenues for future research. Automatic Indexing and Abstracting of Document Texts is an excellent reference for researchers and professionals working in the field of content management and information retrieval.

Despite their changing role, abstracts remain useful in the digital world. Highly beneficial to information professionals and researchers who work and publish in different fields, this book summarizes the most important and up-to-date theory of abstracting, as well as giving advice and examples for the practice of writing different kinds of abstracts. The book discusses the length, the functions and basic structure of abstracts, outlining a new approach to informative and indicative abstracts. The abstractors' personality, their linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge and skills are also discussed with special attention. - Despite the relatively large number of textbooks on the topic there is no up-to-date book on abstracting in the English language - In addition to providing a comprehensive coverage of the topic, the proposed book contains novel views - especially on informative and indicative abstracts - The discussion is based on an interdisciplinary approach, blending the methods of library and information science and linguistics

A comprehensive handbook for amateurs, professionals, teachers and students alike to learn the inticacies of painting abtracts. It features 50 studies detailing dozens of techniques readers can use to practice achieving abstract and non-figurative painting.