Work at Home Job: Abstracting Service

Communications Business
Part Time
Add-on
Low Start-up Costs

An abstractor’s job is to read articles of all types and then to condense the information into ten to fifteen sentences for the purpose of storing in a database. Researchers, browsers and even librarians use these condensed versions online for a faster search on related topics relevant to their search. Another purpose of an abstractor will be to create a list of keywords, called indexing articles, and allows for an even faster and accurate search.

Besides working with database applications, abstracting services also work with creating summaries of books and articles for corporations. This service provides companies with the means of staying in the know of a information based society.

This home job requires you to have great writing abilities and you must be a fast reader. You must also have the ability to condense information into coherent complete thoughts. You should also become an abstractor for information in your field of knowledge or preference of interest. A plus would be to have an interest in the scientific and technical fields. You will also need to become familiar with companies that both supply and deal with information.

To break into the abstracting service business you should first write several samples to include into your portfolio. Many database publishers will only hire local freelancers. Most of these publishers can be found on directories like Epsco Index, Abstract Dictionary, Gale Directory of Online and others. Corporate work can be found by contacting corporate librarians and departments responsible for technical writing.

Rates for an abstractor are normally $5 per abstract but you may charge by the hour which would be $25 per hour. Specialists in the scientific fields will earn top dollar. This business can be a great add-on to an indexing service business or editing/technical writing service business.

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