What is generalising and what is specifying?
Generalising, or abstracting, is restating a concept in more abstract (general) terms. For example, if you move up along the abstraction ladder1 below, the cow Bessie becomes the more abstract terms cow, livestock, and ultimately wealth. If you move down, the term wealth becomes increasingly more specific (hence, specifying).
Why is this useful?
Generalising and specifying help with critical thinking2 and Introduction and Discussion writing. Think of it as zooming in (specifying; which happens in the Introduction, and zooming out (generalising; which happens in the Discussion). For example, generalising allows you to rewrite the results of your study — which are often highly specific — in more general terms:
We found that juvenile Atlantic salmon exposed to 20 µg/L of nitrate had a 12% reduction in growth rate over 8 weeks.
can for example be rewritten in more general terms:
Nutrient pollution can impair fish growth during early developmental stages.
Tip: AI such as ChatGPT are good at abstraction, but be aware that using AI also kind of defeats the purpose of honing your own abstraction skills 😉.
- Hayakawa, S.I. (no date) Language In Thought And Action. ↩︎
- Seabury, M.B. (1991) ‘Critical Thinking via the Abstraction Ladder’, The English Journal, 80(2), p. 44. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/818752. ↩︎