tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post3104838872441403675..comments2024-03-28T15:13:59.703-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: How to Write Like a ScientistGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-35544560436565941482012-03-29T03:24:16.579-04:002012-03-29T03:24:16.579-04:00"As an undergrad, I was told that my writing ...<i>"As an undergrad, I was told that my writing was too readable (!)."</i><br /><br />No doubt by someone trying really hard to make it in academia. I sometimes can't believe some of the stuff architects write in academic settings or even in interviews sometimes. Inscrutable would be a kind description. I tell my freshmen that it's important to learn and use appropriately the big fancy words, but first, write clearly, and use the simplest terms you can to be accurate. You know you're getting somewhere when you can't use simple terms and remain accurate. <br /><br /><i>"I eat poets for breakfast."</i><br />Perhaps that should have been amended with the adjective 'bad', but he or she would likely not approve.<br /><br />Why is it so difficult to admit that bad poetic writing (with too many adjectives and such) and overly-dry techinical writing that leans too heavily on jargon are both horrible. Good communication should be able to work with all the tools available, but skillfully.douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17261739259295914188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-25813812088252329452012-03-26T10:10:41.705-04:002012-03-26T10:10:41.705-04:00My high school English teacher advised us to root ...My high school English teacher advised us to root out most of our adverbs and adjectives. She told us to find a better verb instead. I still go through my sentences and weed 'em out.<br /><br />She impressed us with an example of good prose dried to dust: the "race is not to the swift" passage from Ecclesiastes rewritten in bureaucratese: "Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account." Googling it now, I see she lifted it from Orwell.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-58599724644350579592012-03-26T09:20:22.525-04:002012-03-26T09:20:22.525-04:00As an undergrad, I was told that my writing was to...As an undergrad, I was told that my writing was too readable (!). Grad school did not cure that, but since I've gotten a book contract and won a dissertation-of-the-year award, I'm not going to weep over my inability to create dry prose. That said, if I were writing for something like the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the adverbs and most adjectives would go on vacation for the duration of the article.<br /><br />LittleRed1Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-74155171226665736052012-03-25T13:25:11.890-04:002012-03-25T13:25:11.890-04:00My MA advisor used to send me edits with explanato...My MA advisor used to send me edits with explanatory lines like: "I eat poets for breakfast."Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.com