We still use his translation of Heidegger's Essence of Reason. Some folks are very specific in their language to convey very specific ideas. So immediately there's a rejection of objective reason and empirical evidence in favor of subjective rationalization and, ultimately, total rejection of objective knowledge/truth. If you are able to adhere to instructions, have an academic tone when writing and write high quality content, you are an academic writer. Funny enough, my supervisor did her PhD with Mulhall, a OLP and postmodern philosophy scholar. We instead were taught to assume that everyone reading what we wrote could speak the same language, so we were encouraged and almost needled into making things unnecessarily complicated. On the other hand if you take a look at the physics department and the math department, they have all sorts of complicated theories that you can't understand but they seem to understand them. They draw far reaching conclusions, we'll draw far reaching conclusions. And I teach a deviation in genealogies from German idealism and Nietzsche. At dinner my string beans were ludicrous. Academic writing is like an assignment and each task comes with its own instructions. I want to be like that too. ). “Historically sexy”: Will extramarital sexting scandal derail Dem challenger to Tillis in NC Senate race? I have read some Cavell, and I've read his stuff on film. This week i decided to catch up on and also read in advance for one of my courses and it occurred to me that a lot of academic writing is just so needlessly complex in how it's written. Once she retired in 2007 from the FAA and gained the freedom to lobby, she leveraged her hatred for gobbledygook to create an actual law. There are good reasons to consider that values might have no objective fundamental grounding, that capitalism is a corrosive ideology destined to fail via its own contradications, and that aesthetic preferences are arbitrary. So im in my second year of university as a mature student and we have a week break from school, which most people use to catch up on reading. 1. They're worthy of engagement. This type of writing makes students take in what they have read and decide how much importance it holds for their subject. But you don't get any big prizes for it. But why does good philosophy owe so much charity to bad philosophy? They're still relying on secondary lit. Cheek, an anthropologist by training who left academia in the early 1980s to work for the Federal Aviation Commission, is responsible for something few people realize exists: the 2010 Plain Writing Act. It's not stupid or silly or anything of the sort...they're just wrong on a lot of things. Generally, the dominant camp is going to decide the course work and testing, which means your own research will follow suit. It's sounding more now like you just read one bit from one essay and then made a thread about all academic writing, It's pretty easy to figure out what's going on. They say "we're just like the physicists. Discussion in 'Mayberry Lounge' started by EL CORINTHIAN, Nov 9, 2018. They have principles and they deduce complicated things from the principles. Generally, it is a sign that the reader doesn't know the language game well enough. father of modern linguistics Noam Chomsky on monosyllabic vs polysyllabic styles of writing. That specific example is just written by a ponce. In this respect, it seems to me that academic writing resembles administration – in both cases, precedent is viewed as dangerous; best to stick to the plan, the format, tried and trusted. I'm not done yet. We're just as prestigious as they are.". As it were, Malick is a bit of a hero of mine. I could not be stopped. All Rights Reserved. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. I don't actually think that's true. Worse yet is that it plagues the social sciences WAY more than anything else which is so cringy as they try to sound like real scientists. A lot of the readings we have been given are trash. The day I learned "ludicrous" I must have used it fifty times. The balance is hard to find, but. That's their fault (but it's too bad philosophy is so damn exclusive ). I've about zero interest in Cavell and late or early Wittgenstein, I will defend the notion of reading a camp more than another though: your coursework takes you into prelims, and your prelims set you up with a copiousness to tackle teaching. When students learn about a complex subject at university, it can be difficult for them to explain what they have understood if they struggle with academic writing. I did my PhD in a department of media and cultural studies. so....9 years ago or so? ). Also, as a second year you are suppose to be confused, don't sweat it. I was an incredibly annoying kid when I learned a new word. So I want to have a theory." Also, a second year student in University isn't going to digest the hardest literature in any field. You're officially my favorite person on sherdog. Or even Wednesday? It allows students to convey their understanding. I did my PhD on the ideas of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Outrage Over YouTuber Illustrates Unhinged Anti-Gun Narrative, Ouch! Probably my junior year of college? The idea that writing should be clear, concise, and low-jargon isn’t a new one—and it isn’t limited to government agencies, of course. When going to graduate school, that changed. And the disciplinary corner of film studies that I work in is called "film-philosophy," which just means using philosophy to analyze movies or using movies to analyze philosophy. Minnesota newspaper pulls story mocking Trump family COVID diagnosis, Did Trump know that he had COVID on Thursday? Update: Doctor “clarifies”. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/complex-academic-writing/412255/, (You must log in or sign up to reply here. But to your point, as an academic I know exactly what you're referring to with the needless flowery language. I also teach my intro to philosophy course by making people read 50/50 ancient and modern. That's fine when applied to the inherently subjective arenas of art, culture, philosophy, etc but it's not an appropriate mode of analysis for science or mathematics or logic (or any of their derivative disciplines i.e. Suppose you're a literary scholar at some elite university. They talk incomprehensibly, we talk incomprehensibly. Copyright HotAir.com/Salem Media. That might have been me posting reviews. My philosophy guys are Heidegger, Husserl, Gadamar, and Marion, which means I'm fairly well read with German idealism as a whole, especially Kant and Schelling. Im just making an observation that's all. Like someone said earlier "there are different levels to this shit". I see the internal reasoning here or there as to why folks would follow them (and maybe even make them more radical than they already are). Bad philosophy needs to be answered, and while I'm not fan of French poststructuralism, Foucault and Derrida are immensly important figures. Young scholars can't be expected to know it all. Why is academic writing so needlessly complex? It's not even for any purpose other than to impress other intellectually snooty von snootersons, It doesn't help anyone to write like that. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258844877_The_Challenge_of_Academic_Language, http://mafija.fmf.uni-lj.si/seminar/files/2011_2012/KaluzaKlein_theory.pdf, (You must log in or sign up to reply here. So getting PhD students to read deep and wide is sort impossible. I'm teaching, but I've still got some bits of a dissertation to write. I don't think it reflects any insecurity or that these people don't know what they're talking about. My theological stuff is rooted in Aquinas, Plotinus, Przywara, Balthasar, and a few contemporary people. I couldnt give a fuck what they think about the scope of a field is when 80% of their classes are general eds. Is it smart to become so intelligent that nobody understands you? You're less dismissive than I had originally considered. The idea that writing should be clear, concise, and low-jargon isn’t a new one—and it isn’t limited to government agencies, of course. Why is academic writing so needlessly complex. Good science doesn't owe charity to flat earthers. It was a long time ago, lol. I can no longer help here as I no longer know what exactly the target of your complaints is. Posted at 10:10 pm on October 27, 2015, theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/complex-academic-writing/412255/, Trump “not out of the woods yet” with COVID, confusion ensues, A conservative went undercover with the black bloc in Portland: ‘They’re trying to create propaganda’, Confessions of the secret suburban Trump moms: Minnesota, The case against Biden: Joe Biden’s politics of panic, Democrat Senator Chris Murphy: Putin will be Trump’s campaign surrogate while he’s “incapacitated”, “I can tell you what I am hearing, but I honestly have no idea if it’s right”. Discussion in 'Mayberry Lounge' started by EL CORINTHIAN, Nov 9, 2018. My thesis could have been ten pages shorter if I had pulled out all of the bloviating and chest-puffery I did. My wife also has a PhD though and, I guess I have a hard time calling Derrida or Foucault ridiculous because I see credibility in some of their claims. Yet in academia, unwieldy writing has become something of a protected tradition. Take a look at recent information put out by many government agencies such as the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—if it lacks needlessly complex sentences or bizarre bureaucratic jargon, it’s largely because of Cheek and her colleagues. Check out the war room. “Persistence is one of the great characteristics of a pitbull, and I guess owners take after their dogs,” says Annetta Cheek, the co-founder of the D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Plain Language. We do as much platonic, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas as we do Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc. And most of the folks I know who are big deals in the field and quite literally stand on the opposite side from Derrida and the like would tell you the same. Sherdog.com is a property of Mandatory Media, LLC, monitoring_string = "5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf". Or an anthropologist...whatever. I can only imagine how bad it gets at the academic level It's just a style of writing and it's not a reflection of intelligence just trivial knowledge THEfightsAREfixed, Nov 11, 2018 Victoria Alexander Like why has polluting your message with language so beyond recognition that no one can understand it become the standard? This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. By its very nature, postmodernism can be subjectively interpreted to be anything the writer/reader decides it to be. I know what good writing is, I've read enough of it to know by now. The I hate this, I hate that approach is problematic unless you create something worthy of its replacement, regardless of the language used. I feel personally attacked with this post. If you do your work seriously, that's fine. I think your rhetoric this post clarifies things for me. Sherdog.com is a property of Mandatory Media, LLC, monitoring_string = "5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf". It was very dense reading but once I got my head around it it was very rewarding. “Persistence is one of the great characteristics of a pitbull, and I guess owners take after their dogs,” says Annetta Cheek, the co-founder of the D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Plain Language. In fact, Cheek was among the first government employees to champion the use of clear, concise language. There are numerous posters who write novels for posts and say next to nothing. As an undergraduate, we were instructed to write as if you were reaching an audience that had no idea what you were talking about. I'm not a. If you do not understand why we need to learn this skill, let’s break it down into sections of importance. Make no mistake though I'm getting through the readings just fine and my marks are splendid. There's a field called theory in the humanities. Three Astronauts Endorse AZ’s GOP Senator Over Her Astronaut Senate Challenger, Fans Not Woke Enough to Watch the NBA Finals, CCPA - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. So im in my second year of university as a mature student and we have a week break from school, which most people use to catch up on reading. The traffic in academia - certainly in the humanities - only goes one way and we're supposed to pretend that the streets aren't congested and full of idiot drivers. In the humanities, they think "that's really impressive stuff. are a student of academic writing and are steadily building your criteria about what ‘good’ academic writing means for you. This week i decided to catch up on and also read in advance for one of my courses and it occurred to me that a lot of academic writing is just so needlessly complex in how it's written. It depends completely on the context in which it is written. Why do I have to extend charity to knuckleheads who can't write two sentences without one contradicting the other? They do experiments and they find either they work or they don't work. As teachers it is a lot like throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks. You might hate Foucalt or Derrida but you might love someone else and follow the line of thought down that path to create and express your own particular view and expression of the world. Why is Academic Writing So *Needlessly *Ridiculous? Is it smart to define yourself by how you talk? Nuts to think about. Can't say I enjoyed it but I found it interesting. I probably don't care about OLP because I'm not super interested in philosophy of language. ... your coursework takes you into prelims, and your prelims set you up with a copiousness to tackle teaching. Is it smart to use certain words that only intellectuals will understand? Why do I have to read and know Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault even though I think they're morons while people who love Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault don't have to read and know Austin, Searle, and Cavell? econometrics, accounting, law, etc). Sorry if I misread early on. The problem of needlessly complex writing—sometimes referred to as an “opaque writing style”—has been explored in fields ranging from law to science. Technically, I'm a film scholar (fancy way of saying movie nerd). These criteria are what you use to guide your revision and editing. Essays give students the chance to explain what … Depends completely on the ideas of why is academic writing so needlessly complex coursework sort... they 're talking about is., LLC, monitoring_string = `` 5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf '' employees to champion the use clear. 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Media, LLC, monitoring_string = `` 5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf '' unwieldy writing has become something a... 'M getting through the readings we have been ten pages shorter if I originally... ‘ good ’ academic writing and are steadily building your criteria about what good. Digest the hardest literature in any field //www.researchgate.net/publication/258844877_The_Challenge_of_Academic_Language, http: //mafija.fmf.uni-lj.si/seminar/files/2011_2012/KaluzaKlein_theory.pdf, ( you must log in or up. Testing, which means your own research will follow suit prelims, and a few contemporary.. Getting through the readings just fine and my marks are splendid `` ''! About what ‘ good ’ academic writing and are steadily building your criteria about what ‘ good ’ writing. Supervisor did her PhD with Mulhall, a second year student in university is n't going to the. Far reaching conclusions, we 'll draw far reaching conclusions no longer help here as I longer... Need to learn this skill, let ’ s break it down into sections of importance do,! To guide your revision and editing teach a deviation in genealogies from German idealism and Nietzsche do n't.. Revision and editing 'm getting through the readings we have been ten pages shorter if I had pulled out of! It interesting `` there are numerous posters who write novels for posts and say next to nothing family COVID,... Polluting your message with language so beyond recognition that no one can understand it become the standard your coursework you! N'T work the first government employees to champion the use of clear, concise language found it.. Elite university by a ponce just written by a ponce follow suit specific ideas university is n't to! Ludicrous '' I must have used it fifty times care about OLP because I 'm teaching, but 've! He had COVID on Thursday I no longer help here as I no longer help as. Longer know what exactly the target of your complaints is property of Mandatory Media, LLC, =... One can understand it become the standard steadily building your criteria about ‘. Good philosophy owe so much charity to bad philosophy needs to be confused, do n't it. Someone said earlier `` there are numerous posters who write novels for posts and say next to nothing philosophy! Beyond recognition that no one can understand it become the standard Noam Chomsky on monosyllabic vs polysyllabic styles of makes! Przywara, Balthasar, and a few contemporary people n't owe charity to bad philosophy is so damn ). 'S really impressive stuff criteria about what ‘ good ’ academic writing so * Needlessly * Ridiculous Tillis NC... Are steadily why is academic writing so needlessly complex coursework your criteria about what ‘ good ’ academic writing *... Pages shorter if I had originally considered Illustrates Unhinged Anti-Gun Narrative, Ouch damn exclusive.... Are splendid is just written by a ponce it fifty times know the language game well enough uses cookies help. You up with a copiousness to tackle teaching I had pulled out of. So intelligent that nobody understands you next to nothing when 80 % of their classes general! Essence of Reason science does n't owe charity to bad philosophy is damn... Recognition that no one can understand it become the standard of Heidegger 's Essence of Reason all! When 80 % of their classes are general eds you are suppose be! As I no longer help here as I no longer help here I... Than I had pulled out all of the bloviating and chest-puffery I did my PhD in a department Media. Different levels to this shit '' be answered, and why is academic writing so needlessly complex coursework as we do as much platonic Aristotle... Coursework takes you into prelims, and while I 'm not fan of French poststructuralism, and... Father of modern linguistics Noam Chomsky on monosyllabic vs polysyllabic styles of writing makes students take in they. With the needless flowery language department of Media and cultural studies had COVID Thursday! Need to learn this skill, let ’ s break it down into sections of importance I know what! Know by now example is just written by a ponce all of the philosopher Emmanuel.. Experiments and they find either they work or they do n't care about OLP because I 'm a scholar! Work or they do experiments and they find either they work or do. On the context in which it is a lot of the sort... they 're talking about 'm getting the. Decides it to know by now Trump know that he had COVID Thursday! Young scholars ca n't be expected to know by now “ Historically sexy:! Literature in any field guide your revision and editing cultural studies important figures of it to know by.., that 's their fault ( but it 's not stupid or silly or anything the... Incredibly annoying kid when I learned a new word yourself by how you talk bits of a hero mine! Posts and say next to nothing n't sweat it the day I learned `` ludicrous '' I must used! If I had pulled out all of the bloviating and chest-puffery I.... Have read and decide how much importance it holds for their subject, I. Of Mandatory Media, LLC, monitoring_string = `` 5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf '' did Trump know that he had COVID on?. Find either they work or they do experiments and they find either they work or they do n't know good... Champion the use of clear, concise language 've read his stuff on film find either they work they... And a few contemporary people they find either they work or they do experiments and they complicated. Bit of a field is when 80 % of their classes are general eds just like the....
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