Academics have to unlearn bad writing:
A friend in mainstream trade publishing, who’d like nothing better than to buy books written by smart people on important topics, cringes when she spies an academic heading toward her at a party. For D and her editorial colleagues, “academic” is shorthand for “lifeless prose, cumbersome to read, filled with unnecessary complication, often disdainful and stridently obscure in style and tone.” If by chance they do wind up wanting to acquire a manuscript by a faculty member, the first thing they say at the editorial meeting is: “But he doesn’t write like an academic!” I’m fascinated by the fact that we don’t take this as an insult. Academics are not embarrassed by writing that’s impenetrable. We’re taught to feel like doctors castigated for poor penmanship. Producing turgid prose is part of how we define ourselves as professionals.
reblogged from fluffynotes
