Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Why Academics Stink at Writing

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

"Fog comes easily to writers," writes Steven Pinker, "it's the clarity that requires practice." I completely agree. In this article bemoaning the obscurity of academic writing and offering some possible causes for the phenomenon, Pinker hits the nail on the head over and over again. I am not a Pinker fan, but this article may just make me one. Who cares about the nature of cognition, if we can agree on the problems with academic writing?!? " Even scientists, with their commitment to seeing the world as it is, are a bit postmodern.... It's just that good writers don't flaunt that anxiety in every passage they write; they artfully conceal it for clarity's sake."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 11:07 p.m.

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