Abstracts

The abstract was the last thing I wrote for my dissertation.  Each data chapter has an abstract, and then there's one for the dissertation as a whole.  Every time I write an abstract I remember a story Dallas told our first year.

Dallas had a student in his gen chem lab who refused to put his results in the abstract of his lab report.  A scientific abstract is supposed to be a summary of the entire paper/report, including the results and conclusions.  This student knowingly lost points on his lab report every single week because as an English major he refused to "spoil the ending" by giving away his results in the abstract.

Cracks me up every single time I write an abstract.