Why Is Academic Writing so Hard?
After editing for 20 years, I might have an idea or two about this sore topic. Well, four ideas for today, to be precise. Five seemed too blog-y. I may have more later.
Nobody, outside of the Americans and possibly the Canadians, was ever really taught the hamburger model for paragraph writing. So, when the rest of the world writes a paragraph, they just write. When Americans read this, they see chaos because, hey, who moved my hamburger? Encoding your knowledge in language is a whole thing, and so is language politics and power dynamics.
The writing tenet spouted by all academic writing advisors—one idea per paragraph, one paragraph per idea—befuddles most of the world (Americans included this time) because what the hell is “one idea” and how do we distinguish it from “another idea”? Where is the line and how do we draw it? [I have some solutions, but they’re not ideal.]
The curse of knowledge is insidious, and the writing it spits outs makes us lose all confidence in ourselves, in our co-authors and in our students. Everyone looks stupid to us, and we look stupid to everyone. Imposter syndrome is alive and well. [Read about the curse of knowledge here.
Access to a computer makes everyone think they are writing, whereas they could actually just be drafting. Knowing the difference between writing to clarify your ideas and writing to produce final text can mean the difference between being productive and having mental health issues. [Read about the distinction between writing and typing, as Timothy Pollock calls it.]
Agree? Disagree? Want to add to the list? Email me.