Research Article Abstracts as a Tool for Disseminating Knowledge in Online Legal Publications

In the course of the last few decades web-based communication has facilitated the dissemination of scientific knowledge and has contributed to making material which was primarily targeted to the expert community also available to the wider public. For such a mass of information to be effectively comprehended, some changes became necessary in order to facilitate web-searches and locate relevant material when browsing online archives. In the light of the above, the genre of research article (RA) abstracts in online academic publications seems to be particularly interesting, since its distinctive generic function is to both attract the readers’ attention and synthetically anticipate the content of the ensuing RA. This paper compares abstracts in print issues and those available in electronic format of the Washington Law Review to see whether and to what extent the concern for piquing readers’ curiosity to continue reading the associated RA has affected abstract writing. The focus will be placed particularly on knowledge dissemination (KD) resources such as the labels used to refer to the associated RA, the verbs employed to describe the type of scientific activity performed by the RA and, finally, the metadiscursive markers (namely frame and endophoric markers) used to provide interpretive guidance to readers.