Comments on Yogademia: Hemingway, truth and icebergs

Thanks to all of you for reading and commenting! ...

2009-09-10T06:40:21.971+01:00

Thanks to all of you for reading and commenting!

Matthew - Thanks for the sites, and for your thoughts on Orwell/S&W. They really do seem to generate a lot of kerfuffle for being so widely recommended, don't they?

Melita - Thank you! I'm very excited about it. And about the tea trade!!!

City Girl - That is exactly what I'm talking about. I read over my work, and the adjectives are just obscenely superfluous. Now I am consciously skipping them.

Julie - Authenticity is right on the money. Being authentic on the page is part of being authentic in general. The Authentic Academic - there's a blog tagline for you!

Lavanya - You and I are absolutely on the same page about this, and it is so refreshing. One person at a time, we can change this crazy system. I'm so glad you're enjoying my posts!

Loved the Hemingway quote. It is so true! I've bee...

2009-09-09T18:25:18.801+01:00

Loved the Hemingway quote. It is so true! I've been thinking a lot about this especially in the past couple of months. It is annoying to find hard to read papers that use 'confusing the reader' as a tool to seem intellectual. However, I have also come across many academic papers that are very simply and beautifully written. [When I say simple writing, I don't only mean simply constructed sentences, but also conveying a seemingly complicated concept simply.]..I could go on and on about this as I feel quite strongly about it too..lol..But yeah, nowadays while writing (both academic and creative), I have made a sort of rule for myself, that i write as simply and 'truthfully' as I possibly can. No embellishments to make the truth seem deeper.(Because they usually do not).

Am loving your articles- especially the ones relating to academia..:)

One of the things that strikes me here is the impo...

2009-09-09T16:23:47.087+01:00

One of the things that strikes me here is the importance of authenticity. Writing clearly and straightforwardly is a way of being authentic on the page -- academic writing is so often an attempt to pull off the "god trick" (the view from nowhere) linguistically.

I so feel your pain on this one - lawyers are way ...

2009-09-09T16:13:41.342+01:00

I so feel your pain on this one - lawyers are way way too prone to the same type of flowery nonsense. What kills me is when my drafts that hold small concise sentences are often padded with additional words. Ick.

good luck on your interview!! i hope all goes wel...

2009-09-09T15:14:12.507+01:00

good luck on your interview!! i hope all goes well for you!

as far as the tea trade, i am going to switch names on sept 15th and send emails later that day or early the 16th. i'm so excited, i can hardly wait :)

Two useful pieces on writing style: 1) http://www...

2009-09-09T14:37:12.142+01:00

Two useful pieces on writing style:

1) http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/teaching_staff/Smith/students/writing.html

2) http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/jfb/bengor.pdf

Both are by philosophers but should apply to anyone in any subject.

You should definitely avoid Orwell's awful 'Politics and the English Language', though, as well as the stupendously ignorant Strunk & White. People offering advice on writing style usually mention both. Search for posts on either of those two on Language Log to see why they're so bad. A sampling here:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=992

http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/003366.html

But though I disagree with Smith's suggestion that Orwell's essay is a good source of tips, Orwell's writing in general is a good example of clear prose (as the LL team love to point out, he consistently violates his own prescriptions).