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timtyler comments on Improving The Akrasia Hypothesis - Less Wrong
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Abstract - Body - Conclusions: yay! - tell me three times!
Other posters - if you have a tendency to start with stories and then ramble, please take note.
Well, sometimes there are downsides to this approach...
If you have a captive audience, yes.
Having an abstract is useful when your audience is free to wander off - and probably will. That is often an accurate assumption in academic circles or on the internet.
Yes; although some people can do that and get away with it (i.e. their readers ends up remembering the take-away point).
Writing with power and writing with clarity are two separate skills. You want to develop both, but clarity takes priority. If you write clearly, at least it will be obvious when what you write doesn't matter.
They won't "get away with it" with all readers. The abstract allows skimmers to get the gist quickly - and delve deeper if they are still interested. With no abstract, there is only the title as a guide to the contents - and the reader faces an "unfortunate" choice between risking wasting their time by delving in - or skipping the article entirely.
On a related note I actually took more from the abstract of Alicorn's recent post than I did from the main text. This is something that happens relatively often with posts in general.
Brin claims it doesn't work with fiction:
"Don’t put a plot summary at the beginning. Plunge right into the story! Hook ‘em with your characters."