The Abstract as a Genre: The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
ENG669
Dr. Morillo
I Good Abstracts
1)
Blue = situation via
knowledge of Victorian period
Green =
method
Red = thesis
Purple =
larger consequence(s) for knowledge in the field
Vrettos, Athena. "Displaced
Memories in Victorian Fiction and
Psychology." Victorian Studies: An Interdisciplinary
Journal of
Social, Political, and Cultural Studies 49.2 (2007):
199-207. Print.
In late-Victorian
literature and psychology, memories were frequently
thought
to transgress mental boundaries, drifting from one mind to
another
or assuming a spectral existence. Objects with powerful - and
often traumatic -
associations acted as an especially potent conduit
by which memories
could pass between people who were distant in time
and space. Examining literary, psychological, and parapsychological
writings
by Thomas Hardy, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Henry Lewes,
Samuel Butler, and
F. W. H. Myers,
this essay argues that these works
provide a
distinctive set of narratives about the potential
displacement and
uncertain ownership of memory. By offering a range of
speculations about how
emotions, memories, and experiences adhere to
the material world,
such narratives dramatize the permeability
increasingly attributed to
memory, consciousness, and individual
identity
at the end of the Victorian period.
Remarks:
Very clearly meets the main rhetorical requirements of an abstract: proposes a
thesis, situates it in some ongoing scholarly issues, makes its method clear,
and answers the ‘so what?’ concern with a conclusion about consequences.
2)
Blue =
situation via state of knowledge in the field
Red =
Statement of problem
Green =
method
Purple = thesis
Remarks: very clear structure via rhetorical stages, plus thesis
shows how smart,
sophisticated ideas don’t require long fancy words
3)
Knapp, James A.
“’Ocular Proof’: Archival Revelations and Aesthetic Response.”
Poetics Today 24.4 (2003): 695-727. Print.
A new
materialism in literary and cultural criticism has regrounded
much scholarly debate in the archive as a corrective to ahistorical
theorizing. Often, in granting
archival discoveries the evidentiary status of fact,
historical criticism fails to attend to the difficulties surrounding the
mediation of historical understanding by material things. In order to
get at the thorny issues surrounding the material as an authorizing category in
cultural analysis, I focus on Shakespeare's well-known literary meditation on
visual proof (and visual perception) in Othello. Reemphasizing the problems
that nag materialist epistemologies, I examine the role of material (ocular)
proof in Othello, in the form of the much discussed handkerchief. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's
ontology of perception, I argue that Othello
provides a parable about the disaster of confusing the objecthood
of things with the stories we tell about them. I conclude that as
cultural history moves into its next phase - beyond the return to the archive -
it must respond to the phenomenological challenge and avoid the temptation to
stop with either thing or theory, always working to occupy the space between.
4)
---. "Michel Houellebecq:
The Meaning of the Fright."
Diss. U of California, Santa Barbara,
2007.
DAI-A 68.12 (2008): item
AAT 3295329. Print.
Michel
Houellebecq's work depicts an absolute failure. This artistic and
philosophic
weakness minors our own mediocrity, our pusillanimity, our
lack
of spiritual ambition. This failure is better understood through
the study of
/disenchantment /: that is the feeling of living in a
mechanistic immanent
universe that overwhelms his characters otherwise
hungry for
transcendence. To this /disenchantment of the world, /answers
Houellebecq's
/désenchantisme. /This
dissertation analyzes the peculiar
ideology that is /désenchantisme, /an accepted
failure used as a
strategy
for survival in the novels. But if /désenchantisme
/underlines
all the ills of the
contemporary societies (materialism, consumerism,
spiritual slackness,
hedonism, surrender to crude pleasures and
addictives behaviors),
it's never complacent. Through close textual
analysis from Gauchet to Weber, Sartre and Sennett, I demonstrate that
on the contrary,
self-hatred is paradoxically a positive sign: there is
indeed a moral
judgment behind it, a need for justice. The self hating
houellebecquian hero despises
himself for not being what he knows he
should be. He is an
idealist in spite of all, guided by an unshakable
image of self
transcendence.
Remarks: a grabber first sentence, like a
hook in a song. Strong vocabulary in second sentence. The the subsequent idea of using failure
as a strategy for survival intrigues. The fact that the key term is
French means that will necessarily exclude some readers, not a great choice for
any abstract.
II Abstracts with
Problems
1)
---. "An Imperiled Inheritance: The
Decline of
Politeness
in 20th Century French Literature (Marcel Proust, Pierre
Drieu
Lla Rochelle and Michel Houellebecq)." Diss. Harvard
U, 2005.
DAI-A 66.11 (2006):
item AAT 3194406. Print.
I
describes and examines the ways in which politeness has been
constructed,
defined and privileged in French literary, historical and
theoretical
texts. The
thesis proposes that the centrality of politeness
to /Ancien Régime /French identity---a centrality assured and
enforced
by the figure of
the Sun King and by the etiquette due him---is only
partially weakened by the
subsequent destruction of the monarchy and the
rise of
republicanism in France. Under the /Ancien Régime /,
French-ness
and politeness,
politeness and literariness---in speech, gestures,
fashion and writing---came
to be equivalent. The 20 ^th
century
witnesses the struggle to
maintain this equation even in the absence of
the political
structure which founded, enforced and maintained it. The
thesis maintains that
20 ^th century French literary texts are a
privileged terrain on
which politeness and politics, including fascism,
collide. French
historians such as Robert Muchembled are just coming
to
terms with the
persistence of this model of male masculinity into the 20
^th century and French sociologists believe it to have
been neglected by
their discipline
which, consequently, lacks tools necessary for
understanding the persistence
of aristocratic emotions such as contempt
and other obstacles
to the practical enforcement of the Rights of Man.
The thesis turns to French
literary texts of three distinct moments in
the 20 ^th century. These texts provide thematic illustrations of
the
persistence of
monarchic-style politeness as a perceptual grid, as a
model for behavior as
well as for the construction of hierarchies and of
meaning. Politeness
also figures as a haunting psychological and
paternal presence that
remains pronounced despite its apparent
anachronism. The thesis
argues that the cultural specificity of French
politeness goes some way
toward explaining the consistency with which
its perceived
disappearance is not only expressed throughout the 20 ^th
century, but fraught
with literary and political significance in French
literary texts.
Remarks:
A deadly typo. Jonathan Edwards sleuthed
out why it happened. The version on the dissertation made the title of the
diss. the subject of the first sentence, as he explains:"I describes"
was originally "/An Imperiled Inheritance/ describes." She
must have just changed
the very beginning without remembering to go back
and conjugate the
verbs. Really too bad, because the rest of the ideas and
writing are very appealing, clear, and non-obvious.
2)
---.“‘The Lord of the Rings’ and
the emerging generation:
A Study of The Message and Medium. J. R. R. Tolkien
and Peter Jackson.”
Diss. Drew U,
2009. DAIA 70.6 (2009): item
AAT3364843. Abstract. Print.
Throughout
the ages, the communication of Christian truth has been the
domain
of preachers and poets, musicians and theologians, authors and
dramatists, each seeking
means by which to engage others in the truth that
has captivated and
transformed their lives. From direct proposition to
allegorical representation,
such effective communicators as Dwight L. Moody
and C. S. Lewis
have confronted their culture with Christian truth in
response to Jesus'
command to "go and make disciples". J. R. R.
*Tolkien*employed myth as his
vehicle of expression, creating
*The Lord of the Rings *(*LOTR *)
with no overt religious symbol or act, yet
weaving his Roman
Catholic Christian worldview into the very fabric of his
characters and their
journeys. *Tolkien* described his work as a
"fundamentally
religious and Catholic work, unconsciously at first, but
consciously in the
revision, with religious element absorbed into the
story." 1 He
discovered that myth allows the reader opportunity to explore
the realities of
life within the safety of an imagined world and its
relationship.
*Tolkien's*
fantasy of Middle Earth and her people has captured the heart
and mind
of generations since its publication in 1954, offering glimpses
into the truth that
defined *Tolkien's* life and worldview. This 20 th century
work found new
expression and an even broader audience in Peter Jackson's 21
st century
cinematic interpretation *LOTR. *Together, *Tolkien's** *myth and
Jackson's cinematic portrayal of
that myth have successfully captured the
attention of the Emerging
generation. A study of both narrative and
cinematic mediums along
with the clarity of the message conveyed will allow
an opportunity to
consider the larger question of what medium and what
message impacts the
emerging post-modern generation. This dissertation will
explore the
effectiveness of *Tolkien's* myth and Jackson's cinematic
interpretation of that myth in
communicating truth, seeking insights into
effective means of the communication of Christian truth in a
post-Christian
culture.
Remarks:
the two paragraphs offer two different introductions to the same topic. The key
idea of the first paragraph is abandoned until the end of the second, making a
weak transition and leaving no room to argue for and develop the better idea at
the end about Christian tactics in a post-Christian world.
3)
Khost,
Peter H. “Pioneering the Profession: Crises in English Studies and the
Nontenured PhD.” Diss. City U of New York, 2010.
Print.
Abstract:
This
dissertation addresses contemporary nontenured PhDs
in English, who face a number of disciplinary crises: (1) tenure is steadily
declining, (2) it's increasingly difficult to publish, (3) the general
relevancy of the field has become dubious, and (4) the number of English majors
is shrinking. This confluence of crises makes competition for fewer jobs
fiercer and begs the question of what the backlog of nontenured
English PhDs will produce as scholarship, and how and why they will do this.
The growing number of individuals in this position is just as qualified as their
tenured colleagues are to do legitimate scholarship, but if tenure is not
likely or not possible for them, then their motivation and means to do
scholarship may likely be quite
different. So, then, might their methods be different.
Remarks:
detailed statement of problem but weak and tentative about any solution
4)
Pender,
Matea. “Addressing the Needs
of Racially/Culturally Diverse Student
Populations
in Higher Education: an Analysis of Educational Practices for
Disadvantaged
Youth.” Diss. U of Maryland, 2010.
Print.
Abstract:
The recent growth in the racial and cultural
heterogeneity of college students in the United States has increased the demand
for higher educational policies that will accommodate the needs of an
increasingly diverse collective student body (Kao & Thompson, 2003).
Traditionally, underrepresented minority students (i.e., African American,
Hispanic and American Indian) persist in colleges at a lower rate compared to
non-Hispanic, white and Asian students.
There is evidence that minority students fail to persist because of limited or unsuccessful
attempts by postsecondary institutions to help improve academic and social
integration of these students in colleges (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997; Maton, Hrabowski & Schmitt,
2004; Summers & Hrabowski, 2006). In
addition, many students receive inadequate family and financial support because
their parents lack college education. Finally, Hispanics who are currently the
largest minority group in the U.S., are more likely to
be immigrants. Hispanic immigrants are
one of the most vulnerable racial/ethnic groups with the lowest levels of
academic success (Passel, 2005).
In my dissertation, I analyze three educational
strategies adopted by higher education institutions with the goal of improving
educational outcomes for the most vulnerable groups such as first-generation,
minority and immigrant students. In the first essay, I explore the importance
of financial aid for students whose parents have low levels of education. I
find that the availability of federally funded need-based aid lowers attrition
rates of first-generation college students.
Second, I explore the significance of undergraduate
research opportunities for minority students in science fields. My results
indicate that summer research opportunities obtained at academic and government
sites increase participation of underrepresented minority students in science
Ph.D. programs.
Finally, in my third essay, I address the impact of
changes in tuition prices on the educational outcomes of college students who
are not U.S. citizens at two universities in Texas and find some evidence that
the reduction in tuition costs improves college affordability for these
students.
Remarks:
good example of how to include citation in an abstract, just name and date.
Ideas here seem pretty obvious but the writing is very clear at the sentence
level.
5)
---. “Tenure and Its
Denial: Facing the Winter Years and Beyond.”
College Literature 33.2
(2006): 70-83. Print.
Abstract:
The details that one recalls at the time of dramatic
and, indeed, traumatic events in one's life remain indelibly marked and may
create difficulties in pursuing the regular course of work and private
pursuits. The author reflects on the events the denial of tenure, how he faced
this crisis, and how his preparation in research and teaching provided him a
basis upon which to overcome the 'winter years' of this difficult period and
move on with his career.
Remarks:
Ouch.
Lots of psychodrama, no real thesis.
6)
---. “Theories and Expectations: On
Conceiving Composition and
Rhetoric
as a Discipline.”
College English 41.1 (1979): 47-56.
Print.
Composition studies are investigated.
Composition & rhetoric are not one
discipline, but comprised of
many related disciplines & activities. Studies
on composition should
be done in a wide spectrum by rhetoricians, linguists,
psychologists, & literary
critics. Typical new composition specialists try
to assimilate too much
information, & thus are unable to control the vast
material. Composition theory
& pedagogy are distinctly different, & require
different approaches.
Teachers & curriculum designers ought to be provided
with proper training,
emphasizing the pedagogical side of composition study,
yet balance &
communication should be established between instructors &
theorists.
Remarks:
What
were they thinking in 1979? An abject failure of an abstract.
7)
---. “Whitman
as Social Theorist: Worker in Poetics and Politics.” Walt Whitman Review 16
(1970): 41-45. Print.
Poetry
(an artistic and idealistic demeanor not ignorant of feeling and its place in
the world of knowing) and power (a demeanor of legitimated aggression) are
apparently strangers. But in the person and poetry of Whitman there is to be found poetics and politics in a creative tension
such that they stand as handmaidens illuminating each other. Whitman the man is politician enough to be a government bureaucrat; he is
poet enough to cry for justice and love and brotherliness in a human condition
dominated by power-managers. Whitman is defiant in his lyric celebration of
the individual as a highest social value. With the social behaviorist school in
social theory and with a voice like Camus which affirms the individual as more
important than any political abstraction, Whitman identifies
the lone personality as of infinite value. Not one to ignore wider issues, Whitman celebrates the role of diversity and the common man unsupervised
as a crucial element in change. The American character for Whitman is that which frees the individual for his own self-realization.
Both ideologically conservative and liberal, Whitman calls for
social harmony and individuality: he knows there can be no society at all
without legitimated power; he knows, too, the awful risks of power. It is the
source of much profound in Whitman that his temperament was both tragic
and liberal, both poetic and political. For in the end Whitman knows that turbulences are native to the human condition and that
to live is to choose directions within them.
Remarks:
Poor sentence structure. Huge long subjects, delayed verb, and
then the verb is weak. Bad information flow, with old preceding new.