tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post5087313353635240797..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: American Academics Writing BadlyStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-66148618094861341622013-12-08T11:58:17.903-08:002013-12-08T11:58:17.903-08:00Orwell: When people use impenetrable prose and arc... Orwell: When people use impenetrable prose and arcane jargon - they don't want to communicate. They want to lie and/or hoodwink for purpose.<br /><br />Sad fact: Orwell (I've read 2 bios that convinced me) was suicidal from Burma on. And Wallace.<br /><br />I got out of the Speechwriting game just in time. My newer honchos were uninterested in Communicating. They wanted to tell audiences how Great & Brilliant they were, and make brownie points with Their honchos.<br /><br />I tried, but was unable to do that.<br /><br />My replacement cut & pasted from the Web. Last I heard, they liked his stuff.<br /><br />Why do "theories" of impenetrable persiflage and utter bosh emanate from France & Germany? -- Rich Lara Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-44413400322027555152013-12-06T17:52:15.018-08:002013-12-06T17:52:15.018-08:00I suspect there are two major motivations:
1 - Tr...I suspect there are two major motivations:<br /><br />1 - Try to swindle the reader for personal profit - e.g., I don't know anything of value, but I want the university to keep giving me grants;<br /> 2 - Try to swindle the reader for collective profit - e.g., I think my entire discipline is fraudulent, and I won't personally profit from its continuation, but I want my peers and successors to have a lucrative business.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-48360674470045210722013-12-06T14:33:41.747-08:002013-12-06T14:33:41.747-08:00Clearly all had done extensive post-doc work in ba...Clearly all had done extensive post-doc work in bafflegab.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-64072776480786668852013-12-06T14:23:02.796-08:002013-12-06T14:23:02.796-08:00Tip,
I also like "Make Your Words Work"...Tip,<br /><br />I also like "Make Your Words Work" by the late Gary Provost.<br /><br />"By writing that works, I mean writing that does the job it's suppose to do, whether that job is to inform, entertain, anger, or instruct."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-89404037007800881332013-12-06T11:57:29.339-08:002013-12-06T11:57:29.339-08:00My writing has progressed through the years by rea...My writing has progressed through the years by reading a number of books and articles. Here are five that have had the most impact:<br /><br />- "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk & E.B. White<br />- "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser<br />- "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell<br />- "Writing On Both Sides of the Brain" by Henriette Klauser<br />- "On Writing" by Stephen King<br /><br />Klauser's book had a huge impact because it introduced me to the "Gunning Fog Index," a tool for analyzing readability. I read it immediately after college and it changed my writing forever.<br /><br />Wikipedia does a good treatment on the fog index:<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index<br /><br />I remember pulling a number of books off my shelf. I stacked them in rank order based on how easy I remember they were to read. Then I measured random pages from each using the fog index. After that exercise, I measured my own writing from college and realized I absolutely tortured my professors by subjecting them to needlessly complex sentences. What an enlightening experience! <br /><br />I also love Stephen King's rule admonishing writers to eliminate all adverbs. That's a difficult one for me, but I get it. Still practicing (really, really, really practicing!).<br /><br />I know I make long comments on this blog, but I hope they are clear!<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-5324132088209458442013-12-06T09:02:16.975-08:002013-12-06T09:02:16.975-08:00Here's some entertaining quotes from an articl...Here's some entertaining quotes from an article in the Florida Bar Journal, <a href="http://www.afn.org/~afn54735/language1.html" rel="nofollow">Lawyers Should Use Plain Language</a>, on the use of legalese:<br /><br />"The price of clarity, of course, is that the clearer the document the more obvious its substantive deficiencies. For the lazy or dull, this price may be too high.--Reed Dickerson, Professor of Law, Indiana University."<br /><br />"The common language of the law is not the product of necessity, precedent, convention, or economy, but it is the product of sloth, confusion, hurry, cowardice, ignorance, neglect, and cultural poverty.--Judge Lynn N. Hughes, U.S.. District Court, Houston, Texas."<br /><br />" The judge wrote:<br /><br />I read briefs prepared by very prominent law firms. I bang my head against the wall, I dash my face with cold water, I parse, I excerpt, I diagram and still the message does not come through. In addition the structural content is most often mystifying."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-2453398012991745682013-12-06T08:16:06.331-08:002013-12-06T08:16:06.331-08:00After reading good writing - even intellectually c...After reading good writing - even intellectually challenging material - I don't feel exhausted. I take it as a sign that someone is poor at written communication when reading a single of their sentences makes me feel exhausted.Joshhttp://www.joshuapostema.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-24377075274686640182013-12-06T07:53:47.869-08:002013-12-06T07:53:47.869-08:00Bad writing AND bad oral presentation skills are c...Bad writing AND bad oral presentation skills are common in academia, but are not limited to that arena. There are many people in business whose presentation skills are abysmal...PowerPoint deserves some of the blame, but many of these people would give bad pitches in ANY format. I've even known commissioned business-to-business salespeople, whose income is directly related to their pitchmanship skills, who were pretty mediocre at this.<br /><br />I think that Rhetoric, which was one of the classical Liberal Arts, should again be part of the university core curriculum. Any college graduate should be able to write clearly, speak intelligibly and persuasively, and defend his ideas in debate.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.com