The gap between science and the humanities

One of the results of unavoidable specialization in our modern world is the gap between science and the humanities. Technicians often lack any coherent philosophical background, while men of general culture lose respect for a science they know little about. The outcome is regrettable. Scientific workers may pursue mere technical mastery for its own sake: they may lose sight of human problems. Others are inclined to regard science as no more than the power behind mass production, sanitation, atomic bombs and space travel: they fail to understand its vital contribution to human thought.

One of the ways of bridging this gap is that students of the humanities at the universities should learn some science. If I were asked to justify this belief I would say that anyone whose outlook and imagination are uninfluenced by science is capable of serious errors of judgment in some of the most important issues of the modern world.

The problem is not, however, whether science should be taught, but what kind of science. It can hardly be expected that classicists, modern linguists and historians should be required to perform experiments or to work out mathematical problems – they are unlikely to have any inclination in this direction. But all students should find interest in science presented historically as a human achievement and as an intellectual competition.

By A. McKenzie

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Tip 1 The subject…

How does the story begin? The facts proved the gap are mentioned in the first paragraph.

How does the middle support and move the idea along? We can see the author’s view how to bridge the gap.

How does the ending fit? The ending describes how the problems stated in article can be solved.

Tip 2 There is no highlighted items on this page so that you can read through and make your own decisions.

At the bottom of this summarizing, you will see how much information, though necessary to the article, would be considered trivial in learning how to write an annotation or an abstract.

Tip 3 One or two-sentence summary.

We can actually come up with two different one-sentence summaries:

To bridge the gap the technician students should study humanities and students of the humanities should learn some science.

All students should find interest in science presented historically as a human achievement and as an intellectual competition to bridge the gap.

NOTE: For those of you who might be called upon to write a one-sentence logline for your story or screenplay:

Learning how to write an annotation or an abstract is the way you can come up with the most accurate one or two-sentence description that’s required in the writing industry for most writing.

Tip 4 Notice that the topic of the article is put right inside the title itself.

• The gap between science and the humanities

• Technicians often lack any coherent philosophical background

• men of general culture lose respect for a science they know little about

• Scientific workers may lose sight of human problems

• anyone whose outlook are uninfluenced by science is capable of serious errors

• modern linguists should not be required to perform experiments

• But all students should find interest in science presented historically

Tips 5 and 6 The last point in how to write an annotation or an abstract is writing it. So, now let’s write using all the tips given.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tip 7 Most vital in how to write an annotation or an abstract is proofreading and editing.

What good is writing an annotation or an abstract if it’s fraught with errors of your own? 