Improving the Dreary State of Academic Writing

From the Marshall Memo #444

In this piquant article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rachel Toor (Eastern Washington University/Spokane) bemoans the way many academics express themselves on paper. “Writing frumpy, lumpy prose,” she says, “is the equivalent of showing up on a first date with unwashed hair and dirty clothes, and then talking about yourself in a way that leaves the other person looking at her watch and remembering she has to do laundry.” 

Why do so many academics write so badly? Toor wonders. Perhaps it’s to prove they’re smart. Professors, says Patricia Nelson Limerick of the University of Colorado/Boulder, “are the kids no one wanted to dance with in high school.” So they have to show how much they’ve read, drop lots of important names, use specialized language to show they deserve to be a member of the club, and constantly prove they’re right. Their prose seems to be written “neither by nor for humans,” says Toor, and it “keeps readers out rather than inviting them in… Pretension wins out over clarity, originality, or even meaning.”

“Complaining about bad academic prose is like discussing the weather,” she continues, “talk, talk, talk, and no one does anything.” Toor is for doing something! “Sure, as professors we are supposed to be intelligent, and sometimes it feels like we have to keep proving that. Remember, though, it’s not either/or. Attractive writing – brave, personal, narrative, zingy, imaginative, funny – will not make you appear any less smart.”

Toor says professors who teach writing courses should focus on training the next generation of academics “to be good at the things that academics are supposed to do: read, write, think clearly and critically, and present new ideas and material so their importance shines through.” She says academics [and K-12 educators, for that matter] should be liberated so their writing has these qualities:

• Persuasive
• Argumentative
• Claims backed up by evidence
• Compelling stories
• Original
• Imaginative
• Creative flair
• First-person anecdotes
• Catchy openings
• Concrete nouns
• Active verbs
• Lots of good examples
• Warm
• Human
• Funny

And academics shouldn’t worry about appearing Not Serious or Not Smart if they write well, says Toor. 

She closes with a quote from Blaise Pascal: “When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed, for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.” 

“Becoming a ‘Stylish’ Writer: Attractive Prose Will Not Make You Appear Any Less Smart” by Rachel Toor in The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 6, 2012 (Vol. LVIII, #40, p. A22), 

http://chronicle.com/article/Becoming-a-Stylish-Writer/132677/; Toor can be reached at careers@chronicle.com.