You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Amazon (genuine) bestseller every Holiday Season! Research skills. There are solid, sensible, positive reasons for scientific writing being so boring. If the writer has been clueless enough to use that sort of language when writing for a science audience, then there will probably be plenty of major problems for a cynical, knowledgeable reader to find. The THES has also identified concerns about young academics’ writing and research as elegant, but not interesting. How To Write Better updated their business hours. -------------------------------------------------------- . This actually is far easier than trying to research, write a little, research, write a little, and so on. Unfortunately, those reasons are seldom explained to unfortunate non-scientists about to encounter the scientific writing style for the first time. They would prefer to fully expand on each point with plenty of details because it eats up their word count. Scientific writing isn’t boring because scientists don’t know anything better. Great little book for anyone who enjoys dining out and wants to learn the right issues to write about in reviews for Trip Advisor etc. Is academic writing becoming… academic? Mesmer would “magnetize” water or iron rods by passing his hands over them, and use them to heal afflicted body parts. If neither is on your side, pound on the table. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. You may be surprised by the results. And academics, even physicists, can do funny. When you take all of those out, you end up with something a lot less exciting, but a lot nearer to the word limit and the prospect of peer-reviewed publication. The reason for this dislike is the same reason that lawyers view emotive, colourful language with distrust. (Unique Selling Proposition/Point?) *Marketing *Poetry Or, even worse, just plain boring? NYT asked this question in 2014, and bemoaned the growing separation of academia from journalism.The THES has also identified concerns about young academics’ writing and research as elegant, but not interesting. Instead, he left France disgraced, in search of clients elsewhere. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. But this is not an unhappy accident. | hyde and rugg, Academic writing versus magazine writing | hyde and rugg. “Professors hate rules for themselves,” she says. There’s a difference, of course, between not understanding something and being bored by it. Here's how to do it... teachers and professors hate grading papers, howtowritebetter.net/wedding-speeches-during-coronavirus-restrictions/, howtowritebetter.net/copywriting-how-to-write-a-powerful-usp/. *Nonfiction Meanwhile, the commission’s ingenious methods provided a model for controlled clinical trials to rigorously assess medical treatments, in what is now considered perhaps “the first modern psychology study.”. Even if your essay is 1% more entertaining than the last, it may mean a great deal to the professor who one assumes is bored, sick, and tired of marking these works. Communication is at least a two-way street and the biggest problem with communication, according to George Bernard Shaw, is the illusion that it has taken place. If you’ve got some interesting theory, write about the theory; if you’ve got interesting data, write about the data; if you’ve got neither interesting theory nor interesting data, then go away and find something that’s actually worth publishing. But it does sometimes feel as if the forces in academia today push towards a careerism that values metrical success and avowing your credentials as a bone fide scientist (your objective “worth” and integrity) over the creation and investigation of novel ideas. Academic text isn’t created to be entertaining, so students have to make the best of what they have and curb their artistic and entertaining impulses, but is that the best move? The challenge is making the good reasons for it broadly understood – and finding ways to make the valuable knowledge academics produce accessible to all. Examples and anecdotes are also in the firing line; they’re just re-iterating points that you’ve already made. But one often creates the other. *Grammar Please welcome freelance content writer Jessica Freeman from Sydney, Australia, who shares her thoughts on why academic writing has become so boring to read … plus some ways in which to make it more reader-friendly. Word counts are a good reason for taking exciting, colourful words out of a piece of writing. Traditionally, it was journalists who mediated the communication process between academics and others. To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. Research funding is linked to indicators such as Britain’s Research Excellence Framework, which focuses on journal article output. This has major implications for the concept of writing as a “transferable skill”. There’s an old saying in law about the relative values of different types of argument, and about which type to emphasise when you’re making your case. As any articulate party would know, the particles in “the particles in an article” are “the” and “in,” whereas the articles in “the particles in an article” are “the” and “an,” but the particular article in “the particles in an article” is “the.” “p.s.” is all that is left when you take the “article” out of “particles.”) are photons, as was the case in Kocsis et al…”. They systematically tested and dismantled his claims. *Social Writing Do not forget that the person reading and marking your paper is a human and not a machine. She is interested in traveling and online learning. | hyde and... Pingback: Logic, evidence, and evidence-based approaches | hyde and rugg, Pingback: Finding the right references, part 3: Breadth, depth and the T model | hyde and rugg, Pingback: Seasonal humour: Getting that special paper published | hyde and rugg, Pingback: The Knowledge Modelling Book | hyde and rugg, Pingback: Life at Uni: Will the world end if I fail my exams? Learn how your comment data is processed. So when he wrote a Chronicle article on "Why Academics Stink at Writing" I took notice. ( Log Out /  It was painfully clear that Mesmer’s results were due to the power of suggestion – his patients were being mesmerized, and nothing more. It isn’t. Here's how to give a speech to suit. He got a lot of attention as a result, and made a lot of money. Academic writing forces them to look at ideas and research from a different perspective, as this is what they will need to do in order to obtain good grades. --------------------------------------------------------, Problem displaying Facebook posts. Bosley is ever so slightly optimistic for a future of clear academic writing, though. *Wedding Speeches *and much more The first is because students are afraid that if they do not elaborate on a fact that they will be penalized by their professor. Scientific writing has its own indicators of quality, most of which exist for very clear, practical reasons. Different disciplines and fields have different norms for what constitutes “good writing” because they are using it for different purposes. Author. Archived Webinar: What Can Academics Teach us About Censorship During the Pandemic? Nor do they tend to receive much training in how to change their writing style when writing for the public. Over to Jessica… Academic writing exists only to share knowledge and ideas. The Mesmer case was a particularly impactful and high-profile example of why academics now eschew colorful language and grand claims in their written research. Adjectives are a prime target: all those persuasive, colourful words that don’t actually contain much information. Academic writing has its own unique structure, and writers are not penalized for being boring. The commission members gave her the water, observed the dramatic convulsions, and offered her a drink of normal water afterwards to help her recover. The coronavirus pandemic has seen many weddings cancelled but gradually, some weddings are going ahead on a small scale. ---------------------------------------------------------, ---------------------------------------------------------, -------------------------------------------------------, --------------------------------------------------------, -------------------------------------------------------- There may be a surreptitious reason for making your essay more entertaining. So there you are, trying to cram a detailed description of a complex problem and your complex methods and your lengthy results into six thousand words (including the lengthy references that show you’ve done your background reading and that you aren’t some clueless newbie re-inventing the wheel). – the mischievous authors sneaked in a revision, substituting the phrase, “…the particles in this article are photons, as was the case in Kocsis et al….” with: “The particles in this article (Although “the particles in this article” is in this particular article, consider “the particles in an article” as part of an article. Let your mind race and write down what comes to mind. Academic work tends to be very technical, and students are afraid to add a little flair or entertainment value through fear of losing marks when they are graded. In the late 1700s, he developed the idea of animal magnetism – also known as mesmerism – as a way of removing these blockages and restoring health. The biggest missed opportunity by most academics is making their work accessible to the public. Limited word counts leave little room for flair. Get outta here! NYT asked this question in 2014, and bemoaned the growing separation of academia from journalism. Learning how to be and sound professional early on is only going to make life easier career wise. By Gordon Rugg Scientific writing isn’t boring because scientists don’t know anything better. Of course, the full story is more complex than just one single spectacular scandal changing the course of science. Start your essay the first day you receive it so that all your ideas are fresh in your mind, and then just pour them into the first draft like a barrel of oil into an industrial deep fat fryer. Research skills. Who knew MSWord’s find-replace function could be such a hoot? ALTHOUGH I DON'T WRITE AD COPY ANY MORE, YOU MIGHT FIND SOME OF MY PAST TIPS USEFUL! It may seem like a waste of word count, but many marking guides tell professors to look for demonstrations of deep research, and providing real-world examples to prove your point is one way of demonstrating such deep research. If you have ever read a top-scoring essay, you will probably be bowled over by just how boring it is. Not everything can — or should — be easy. Please welcome freelance content writer Jessica Freeman from Sydney, Australia, who shares her thoughts on why academic writing has become so boring to read … plus some ways in which to make it more reader-friendly. Nor do they tend to receive much training in how to change their writing style when writing for the public. And while there are some examples of poor writing, there are many more of excellent writing. *Job Search She enjoys writing on education, technology innovations, and blogging tendencies. *Speeches and Talks This article gives a brief overview of a couple of… What do you delete when your first draft is over eight thousand words long? If you’ve ever made friends with an unwieldy textbook or spent the night trawling through online libraries for journal papers to support a soon-to-be due essay, you’ve probably lamented the boring and unemotional nature of academic writing at least once. One of the strongest cohorts of students I ever encountered was initially dreadful at academic writing. No doubt, these are good examples of bad writing. Change ). It is sad that students are encouraged to follow essay structures without deviation, and it is a shame that students feel afraid to add a little entertainment value into their essays for fear of losing marks. Beneath this though, there’s a deeper issue. You are going to have to brush up on your research skills if you haven’t done so already. You can go back over your essay, pick up each point, research it, prove it, and add the source. ( Log Out /  Either way, knowing some of the reasons why an academic text you may have been assigned to read is so turgid and unpleasant may ease the pain just a bit. --------------------------------------------------------, -------------------------------------------------------- Re-read the tips in this article and take a chance on writing an essay that is not as dry, sterile or clinical as usual. For more articles and tutorials on writing for students and young job seekers, click right here on #HTWB What Research Says About Voting by Mail (Spoiler: It’s Safe), What’s Wrong with WeChat? That could be changed. So, there are good reasons for scientific writing being deliberately unexciting. twitter @patrickjleman email Patrick.Leman@kcl.ac.uk; Copyright © 2020 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes, academic science is becoming unintelligible even for scientists, Universally Challenged #5 – The Colin Again Quiz, Universally Challenged #4 – The Colin Quiz, Universally Challenged #2 – Poplockdown quiz, Universally Challenged #1 – Lockdown Quiz. Academic writing is deliberately dry and impersonal to help researchers assess where the truth actually is, as opposed to where they would like it … If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Reflecting this passion and his general talent for showmanship, his demonstrations and writing were colorful and exciting. Does this mean that scientific writing is just ordinary “good writing” with the exciting bits taken out? Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Uncategorized You very soon discover just how short a six thousand word limit is. So the onus ought to be partly on academics to communicate the significance and details of their work. There’s a summary of it on Wikipedia, and there are numerous published accounts, including an excellent one by Stephen Jay Gould. I’m not sure if it is true that a new generation is any worse than previous generations in that respect – I’ve read a lot of dull research from a number of esteemed former colleagues, and in fact younger academics seem more interested in science communication generally.