Academic Authors Can't Write! --Part 1
Of course, it's an exaggeration to say that academic authors can't write. I say it in the the same sense that "white boys can't jump." But still, among the many academic authors I've worked with, only two or three of them would I say were good writers. Most are wordy and imprecise, inconsistent in style, unclear in exposition, inflated in jargon and ego, pedagogically unsound, and, worst, they lack an authentic and attractive authorial voice (the one true source of a textbook's success).Many other observers have noticed problems with academic writing, such as the Journal of Philosophy and Literature’s famous Bad Writing Contests (Dutton, 1996; see www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm). Canadian journalist Robert Fulford referred to academic writing as "pomo-babble"—“the tortured polysyllabic prose common in academic writing” (National Post, 7/15/03):
“Scholars in the humanities spend much of their time writing, and are forced constantly to read the work of superb writers. Yet they pour out streams of gnarled and barbarous sentences and don’t even know they are doing it…. Crimes against language are not victimless, of course. Academic life has become a publish and perish world: Professors publish, literacy perishes. Students perish too.”
I find it ironic that so few professors write well, especially for students, and that even fewer recognize this fact. Why is this? What are they doing wrong? And what can be done to improve the quality of writing for both scholars and college students? If you have thoughts on these questions, I hope you will comment.
Labels: academic authors, academic writing, writing
posted by Mary Ellen Lepionka @ 5:26 PM
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