Academia and Academic Writing
I have recently come across two interesting pieces, the second being a response to the first.
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-professors-we-need-you.html?_r=1
2. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/02/why-is-academic-writing-so-academic.html
Is academic writing “knotty and strange, remote and insular, technical and specialized, forbidding and clannish” as Rothman puts it, and has academia “become that way, too”? Are academics irrelevant, stuck in “a culture that glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience”, as Kristof bemoans?
I wonder about that as I contemplate (and agonise over) my data and prepare to plan and write my own thesis. To some degree, these thoughts and doubts are also related to an earlier post by Susan where she considered the issue of finding a ‘gap in the literature’ before collecting data. In the end, it’s all about relevance.
Anyway, although the articles are not exactly academic, they address a burning issue of academic proportions…
🙂
Magda
Great articles Magda – thanks so much for highlighting them for us.
In my experience of academic writing so far, which admittedly is mostly limited to assignments, I do feel as if I’m working to a formula: know the audience; know the criteria; know you need to justify/refute everything with the literature and hey presto. The exception, to some extent was my MA dissertation, which, thanks to Richard’s supervision, didn’t feel as formulaic. I have yet to try writing anything for publication though. It’s on the list of things to do, but keeps getting pushed to the bottom!
It will be really interesting to hear how you develop your ideas as you write your thesis and how much freedom you feel you have within the academic style.
Thanks Magda for posting these two thought-provoking articles.
As argued in the second article, it is the academic system that has made academic writing so “academic”. Some journals tend to reject the articles just because it is “informal for academic audience”. Some reviewers even disapprove of using personal pronouns in articles. In this case, social media sites or blogs are very valuable platforms to disseminate research in a way that is accessible to the public. Therefore, I believe that academics should use these alternative platforms more to reach a general audience.