I guess we've all encountered someone that favours the use of 'big words' in long overly complicated sentences. Why do they do this ? I suppose they believe that it makes them appear clever. Of course they're completely wrong. There is a body of published research arguing that the use of clear, simple words over needlessly complex ones can actually make authors appear more intelligent.
There also seems to be an overwhelming tendency to want to make things as dull as possible. While this may make things very precise, it also makes things unreadable. Every week (at the very least) I see papers which sound interesting, probably have some neat conclusions... and then after five minutes I start yawning and give up.
From some recent interactions (which Rhys will recall), some referees now see it part of their job to stamp out any writing that tends towards being readable.
To give you some idea of what we're up against, MNRAS insist using the words, "per cent" instead of "%", as though we were measuring galaxies hydrogen content in American dollar value... we can't even use contractions, for crying out loud. Even Astronomy & Computing wanted to change my section heading "What's in a name ?" to "What is in a name ?", which sounds ridiculous and would have had Shakespeare coughing up blood, probably. I told them to change it back, I hope they listen.
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I guess we've all encountered someone that favours the use of 'big words' in long overly complicated sentences. Why do they do this ? I suppose they believe that it makes them appear clever. Of course they're completely wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere is a body of published research arguing that the use of clear, simple words over needlessly complex ones can actually make authors appear more intelligent.
There also seems to be an overwhelming tendency to want to make things as dull as possible. While this may make things very precise, it also makes things unreadable. Every week (at the very least) I see papers which sound interesting, probably have some neat conclusions... and then after five minutes I start yawning and give up.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree on this topic. Academic texts are often written with unnecessarily complex grammar.
ReplyDeleteFrom some recent interactions (which Rhys will recall), some referees now see it part of their job to stamp out any writing that tends towards being readable.
ReplyDeleteRobert Minchin - Yes, gods forbid making anything useful understandable to the laymen. 😅
ReplyDeleteTo give you some idea of what we're up against, MNRAS insist using the words, "per cent" instead of "%", as though we were measuring galaxies hydrogen content in American dollar value... we can't even use contractions, for crying out loud. Even Astronomy & Computing wanted to change my section heading "What's in a name ?" to "What is in a name ?", which sounds ridiculous and would have had Shakespeare coughing up blood, probably. I told them to change it back, I hope they listen.
ReplyDelete