This post I read on the Chronicle today made me think...Why are academicians so obsessed with trying to make their writing as confusing and complicated as possible? This is not so common in my own field as we're a bunch of engineers who don't know how to write eloquent prose anyway, but sometimes I try to read articles in other fields and get a headache...It's not that I don't understand what they're saying, it's just that they're so heavily and unnecessarily worded that it becomes absurd...It's almost like the author knows the only way he can save the article is by making it sound as "academic" as possible lest people realize he's BSing. Surely someone who uses big words like that knows what he's talking about?!? People who have something original to say need not use big words to get the message through, they will be heard just on the basis that they have something important to say. I believe the pressure to "publish" in academia is one of the many reasons why it is like this, you have to put something out there even if you yourself have no clue what you're talking about. Other reasons I can think of are "traditions" in certain fields (which the article neatly summarizes), and there being too many academicians out there as compared to years ago-only so many of those people can actually be doing something that would be considered an outstanding breakthrough in their field and thus need not embellish their writing with big words trying to make it look important.

When I was writing the introduction chapter for my dissertation, I used a lighter, not-so-technical style in order to put my research in context with everyday life and describe what the problem was. I wanted to stay away from the passive voice which is the standard when writing a technical/scientific paper. This was done, so and so were placed here, it was observed that, etc. were not what I wanted to go with, because dammit, I actively led this research and did not want to feel like an outsider when it was my past 6 years I was talking about...But no, I got the chapter feedback saying I needed to make it more technical, like "academic" writing, like it wasn't my research and I was reporting on somebody else's thoughts and findings. In the end, I compromised a bit, maybe took out the references to everybody liking colorful cake decorations or something, but I managed to keep the wording fairly simple, at least in the beginning. I don't know what difference that made, but that sure was the only part of my dissertation that I enjoyed writing...That part was the "voice" that came from me...