From school bench we are confronted with the term "abstract", but many people, even in adulthood, do not know the exact meaning of the word. So what is abstract?

Annotation is a brief content of the basic meaning of the source (book, magazine, articles). The main task of annotation is to describe the material, indicate its advantages and features. Thanks to the annotation, you can immediately understand what will be discussed in the book or article.

Views of annotation

Each reader, taking a book and read the description, from the first page can determine what kind of scientific or artistic. All this is due to annotation.

In essence, the features are divided into reference and recommendations:

  • Reference or informative (descriptive). This abstract describes the main theme of the text, reports information, but does not give a specific assessment.
  • Recommendative. This abstract gives an estimate of the original source for a certain category of people, a specific age and other features of the reader.

By consumer purposes, annotations are divided into common and specialized.

  • General abstract Writing for a wide range of consumers.
  • Specialized abstract Mains reference information and is designed for a narrow circle of specialists.

There are overview annotations that contain a general description of several sources. There are also bibliographic and publishing annotations.

Bibliographic and Publishing Annotations

Bibliographic abstract is on the turnover of the title page of the book. It contains information about the appointment, the genre of the work, and the creation time. This abstract contains bibliographic information and has a greater value for the library staff (sets the necessary information about the book and simplifies the search). It is drawn up by all the rules of the GOST during the publication of the book.

Publishing abstract is an ordinary advertisement and is on the back cover. Her task is to intrigue the potential reader, whatever he acquired a book. But first of all, this description should be interested in the publisher. After all, it depends only on it, the publication will be released or not.

The rules for writing an annotation for the artistic book

So what is abstract and how to write it? In the publishing case, the word "abstract" is equal to advertising. After all, the goal of the publishing annotation is to sell the book. If it is written correctly, the reader will surely want to acquire the publication.

When writing an annotation, first of all should be repelled on which the target audience is calculated by the book. If the publication is designed for people without literary delights, then suggestions that make up annotation must be brief. You need to promote the reader that when reading the book, he will receive a simple pleasure that he lacks in ordinary life - laughter, tears, fear.


If the book is designed for people with exquisite taste, the emphasis should be made on the aesthetic pleasure of reading the work and filing quality information.

  • Where the actions described occur.
  • Who is the main character of what is happening.
  • Distinctive features of the hero.
  • The plot (very briefly, the abstract should not be volumetric).
  • Conclusion.
  • Interesting information about the author.

Basic principles for writing an interesting annotation

Annotation must be written on the principle of advertising text - briefly, bright, impressive. After all, what that means the word abstract, in this case, is an advertisement book. The main qualities of the text that attract readers:

  • Ease. The abstract text must be responsible for the main question: what is this book? No matter how much it wanted to paint everything colorfully and in detail, it is not worth it. The easier - the better.
  • Suddenness. The description should have a hint for something unexpected: the original idea, mysterious phrase, a bold joke. After all, if the abstract book will coincide with the information that the reader has already owns, it can ignore this instance. But if the look snatches something unexpected, he will definitely want to acquire the publication.
  • Specific. Annotations should be affected by concrete actions, emotions, problems. Even if abstract themes mentioned in the book, they should be described more landed.
  • Persuasive. If in the description of the book, the details will be inserted that only a specialist can know, the reader will perceive the publication as worthy of attention.
  • Emotionic. Describe one hero of the book, not a few characters. People tend to sympathize with a specific person.
  • History. Annotation should be written as a very small story. Describe a tiny story, with elements of surprise, an explosion of emotions and in which you want to believe.

If you write an annotation corresponding to all criteria, it will be a very interesting story, which will want to learn more detail.

Abstract scientific work

If in the artistic literature abstract is an advertisement book, what does abstract in scientific work mean?

Writing an annotation to scientific work is an indicator of not only competent design, but also a sign of the fact that the author can systematize information.

Annotation to scientific work performs the following actions:

  • Allows you to get acquainted with the main content of work.
  • It helps to understand whether it makes sense to fully study the article.
  • Allows you to find the necessary information in search engines.

Annotation includes the characteristics of the main topic (research), tasks and results of scientific work. The description says that this article is borne and what it differs from such work. Properly compiled abstract, facilitates the operation of the editor and will allow you to quickly print and release the material.


After annotation, the main keywords of the articles that contribute to the search engine to determine the subject of the article are drawn up.

Annotation contains not only the essence of the article, but also the results of the studies carried out, therefore, only the author can write it, in contrast to the description of the artistic literature. There are several rules, for the correct writing annotation:

  • When writing, use the scientific language, but understandable for a wide range of people.
  • All characteristics are briefly and clearly.
  • Do not retreat from the requirements that are presented to these types of work (content, volume).

Properly compiled abstract to the text, is a guarantee that the reader will surely want to familiarize himself with the original source, whether it is a scientific publication or fiction.