Until attending university, I hadn’t even thought very much about the word abstract, but probably thought about it only relating to art, meaning something like random, different, irregular, or out there and artistic (doh!!). I didn’t think about in a theoretical way, that it also meant not concrete, in that it does not relate to concrete objects, but expresses something that can only be appreciated intellectually or is based on general principles or theories rather than specific instances. Writing Abstracts has been my thing the last few weeks, as I have been sending them in with the view to presenting at various conferences. Writing them is a task requiring specific pieces of writing that very succinctly define my presentations, in less than 300 words. In an academic abstract, they are meant to be structured and include the aim, method, results and conclusion of your work. It is quite difficult to get the bulk of a 20 or 30 minute presentation, or a 5,000 word research paper into 300 words, but in so doing, it allows you to view it differently, to see it for what it really is, and more importantly (to me at the moment!), if it is good enough to share. An abstract also offers insight into required changes or editing, prior to your final presentation or paper. And it offers a glimpse of what the conference attendee will experience, which I suspect is to only remember a few words, not even as many as the 300 words in the abstract. Thinking back to the time I worked as a nurse, whilst the word practice does also mean to be proficient at your profession, it seems a bit odd that people like doctors, nurses and lawyers talk about practicing, or of their Practice. It is a strange word to use, as when we learn a musical instrument or a new language we practice repeatedly until we achieve our goal, which is for example, to play a piece of music or pass a musical exam. Wouldn’t you have thought by the time lawyers, doctors and nurses know what they are doing, and have passed all of their exams, they should have stopped practicing? The English language is really just a bit odd, don’t you think? Or maybe that is it, we just have to think!