Another public service announcement:
Academics seem to think that because they have reached their position, that
they now no longer have to try to write works that can be understood by
human beings. In my time in the university, I have come across articles and
books that may as well have been written in Mandarin Chinese rather
than Hebrew or English.
Major problems have included:
1) Use of unnecessarily complicated terms and language (See Orwell's excellent
article on the subject, which is still relevant today, unfortunately).
2) Lack of a central theme or argument (i.e. dumping facts, figures and events
in one big heap without explaining the connection between them).
3) Failure to properly explain the argument (e.g. what on earth is the
author trying to say).
4) Failure to follow the rule of KISS (=Keep It Short and Simple) - see my
comments on academic conferences, as well.
5) Filler: long and unnecessary discussions of "theoretical aspects", obsession
with irrelevant details etc.
These are but some of the problems plaguing academic writing today. With
the current "post-modern" trend, things are becoming even worse. Articles
and books are becoming even more filled with giberrish and badly written
pieces that would disgrace a third-grader (see for example, the articles
written in Theory and Criticism).
If you're an aspiring researcher or academic, do yourself a favor and get thee
to Writing 101, before we all pay the price.
