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. 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 I can no longer help here as I no longer know what exactly the target of your complaints is. We still use his translation of Heidegger's Essence of Reason. In the humanities, they think "that's really impressive stuff. As teachers it is a lot like throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks. Check out the war room. I couldnt give a fuck what they think about the scope of a field is when 80% of their classes are general eds. Update: Doctor “clarifies”. They have principles and they deduce complicated things from the principles. 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”. There's a field called theory in the humanities. Funny enough, my supervisor did her PhD with Mulhall, a OLP and postmodern philosophy scholar. ... your coursework takes you into prelims, and your prelims set you up with a copiousness to tackle teaching. We do as much platonic, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas as we do Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc. There are numerous posters who write novels for posts and say next to nothing. So I want to have a theory." I also teach my intro to philosophy course by making people read 50/50 ancient and modern. The problem of needlessly complex writing—sometimes referred to as an “opaque writing style”—has been explored in fields ranging from law to science. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. Like why has polluting your message with language so beyond recognition that no one can understand it become the standard? ). But why does good philosophy owe so much charity to bad philosophy? 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. Or even Wednesday? I did my PhD on the ideas of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. 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. 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. 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. Like someone said earlier "there are different levels to this shit". But you don't get any big prizes for it. I don't think it reflects any insecurity or that these people don't know what they're talking about. A lot of the readings we have been given are trash. Outrage Over YouTuber Illustrates Unhinged Anti-Gun Narrative, Ouch! Generally, it is a sign that the reader doesn't know the language game well enough. I don't actually think that's true. I'm not done yet. You're officially my favorite person on sherdog. 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. You're less dismissive than I had originally considered. My thesis could have been ten pages shorter if I had pulled out all of the bloviating and chest-puffery I did. It allows students to convey their understanding. 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. Discussion in 'Mayberry Lounge' started by EL CORINTHIAN, Nov 9, 2018. “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. 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. Why is Academic Writing So *Needlessly *Ridiculous? “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. If you do your work seriously, that's fine. Essays give students the chance to explain what … Sherdog.com is a property of Mandatory Media, LLC, monitoring_string = "5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf". Victoria Alexander If you are able to adhere to instructions, have an academic tone when writing and write high quality content, you are an academic writer. At dinner my string beans were ludicrous. I probably don't care about OLP because I'm not super interested in philosophy of language. Probably my junior year of college? It's not stupid or silly or anything of the sort...they're just wrong on a lot of things. Nuts to think about. 1. They do experiments and they find either they work or they don't work. It was a long time ago, lol. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/complex-academic-writing/412255/, (You must log in or sign up to reply here. 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. father of modern linguistics Noam Chomsky on monosyllabic vs polysyllabic styles of writing. And I teach a deviation in genealogies from German idealism and Nietzsche. Good science doesn't owe charity to flat earthers. 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. 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. ). Some folks are very specific in their language to convey very specific ideas. 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. When going to graduate school, that changed. 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. They draw far reaching conclusions, we'll draw far reaching conclusions. I could not be stopped. econometrics, accounting, law, etc). I think your rhetoric this post clarifies things for me. All Rights Reserved. They're still relying on secondary lit. Or an anthropologist...whatever. As an undergraduate, we were instructed to write as if you were reaching an audience that had no idea what you were talking about. 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. I'm teaching, but I've still got some bits of a dissertation to write. 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. They talk incomprehensibly, we talk incomprehensibly. 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. 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? Generally, the dominant camp is going to decide the course work and testing, which means your own research will follow suit. Copyright HotAir.com/Salem Media. are a student of academic writing and are steadily building your criteria about what ‘good’ academic writing means for you. Is it smart to become so intelligent that nobody understands you? The balance is hard to find, but. That specific example is just written by a ponce. In fact, Cheek was among the first government employees to champion the use of clear, concise language. Minnesota newspaper pulls story mocking Trump family COVID diagnosis, Did Trump know that he had COVID on Thursday? The I hate this, I hate that approach is problematic unless you create something worthy of its replacement, regardless of the language used. Yet in academia, unwieldy writing has become something of a protected tradition. Bad philosophy needs to be answered, and while I'm not fan of French poststructuralism, Foucault and Derrida are immensly important figures. It was very dense reading but once I got my head around it it was very rewarding. 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. 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. It depends completely on the context in which it is written. Why is academic writing so needlessly complex? My theological stuff is rooted in Aquinas, Plotinus, Przywara, Balthasar, and a few contemporary people. 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. Sorry if I misread early on. They say "we're just like the physicists. I'm not a. I did my PhD in a department of media and cultural studies. 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. Academic writing is like an assignment and each task comes with its own instructions. Is it smart to define yourself by how you talk? These criteria are what you use to guide your revision and editing. Make no mistake though I'm getting through the readings just fine and my marks are splendid. Discussion in 'Mayberry Lounge' started by EL CORINTHIAN, Nov 9, 2018. The day I learned "ludicrous" I must have used it fifty times. I feel personally attacked with this post. Technically, I'm a film scholar (fancy way of saying movie nerd). Why is academic writing so needlessly complex. By its very nature, postmodernism can be subjectively interpreted to be anything the writer/reader decides it to be. Suppose you're a literary scholar at some elite university. 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. I was an incredibly annoying kid when I learned a new word. Im just making an observation that's all. They're worthy of engagement. I want to be like that too. If you do not understand why we need to learn this skill, let’s break it down into sections of importance. Is it smart to use certain words that only intellectuals will understand? 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. Can't say I enjoyed it but I found it interesting. 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. 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. Sherdog.com is a property of Mandatory Media, LLC, monitoring_string = "5200e30beed193e5fe31f8bccc2bdcbf". That's their fault (but it's too bad philosophy is so damn exclusive ). As it were, Malick is a bit of a hero of mine. I know what good writing is, I've read enough of it to know by now. 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). “Historically sexy”: Will extramarital sexting scandal derail Dem challenger to Tillis in NC Senate race? This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. Also, as a second year you are suppose to be confused, don't sweat it. We're just as prestigious as they are.". 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. 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. 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. But to your point, as an academic I know exactly what you're referring to with the needless flowery language. Why do I have to extend charity to knuckleheads who can't write two sentences without one contradicting the other? Also, a second year student in University isn't going to digest the hardest literature in any field. Young scholars can't be expected to know it all. So getting PhD students to read deep and wide is sort impossible. That might have been me posting reviews. so....9 years ago or so? I have read some Cavell, and I've read his stuff on film. 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. This type of writing makes students take in what they have read and decide how much importance it holds for their subject.
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