Fake Fog

All the students and professors write in the way they do not like. Because everybody in the academia has been writing in that way since the death of dinosaurs

The reader must spend 20 minutes decoding the 2 sentence information. Author has to add related, but useless text to reach the minimum word count. The knowledge is not written to be understood, it is written to be accepted now.

Students and professors should use complex words to “prove” their expertise in the field. The more confusion, the better the work. Writing is amateur without academic jargon and style. Was it like that all the time?

The first recorded academic writings dates back to 17th century. Not only academic works, but also other communication methods were done with very formal tone at that time. It could be observed in books, letters or even paintings.

Times changed, we started to prefer casuality in speaking, writing, clothing and living. We became more straightforward in expressing ourselves, abandoning indirect communication. Again this can be seen in our daily lives, text messages, emails, conversations and books. The only that did not change is academic writing.

There are several key aspects of academic writing. One of them is clarity. Writer should present main argument concisely. In fact, clarity is key aspect of other communication methods as well. But can writing be clear enough for the modern reader with this lexical fog? Apparently no.

Academic writing is a contribution to the education. It is written to spread knowledge.It is written so that others can learn from it. Use it for their research. But I doubt that it is serving its purpose in its current state.

All the beautiful, but difficult to undertand academic works can be written in a more simple language. Attracting more readers and creating bigger influence instead of sharing it in a relatively small audience.

[not finished]