2 points

I don’t read much (/any) academic writing, but does it really misuse words the way the link portrays?

Eg

  • academic writing isn’t prose, like that’s almost the definition of prose.
  • intra-specialized doesn’t mean anything (the intra prefix didn’t work on adjectives)
  • “obfuscating … accessibility” means making it difficult to see that it is accessible, where the author probably actually wants to say “reducing the ability of outsiders to access the meaning”

I get that it is satire, but imo it would be better satire if he put in the work to actually make it mean something. Unless the point is that academic writers misuse thesauruses this badly.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

I think the meaning of the actual words that he chose is less important than the fact that it sounds absurdly convoluted.

Also I don’t think his point is true. If you read academic papers come up most of them are pretty easy to understand.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

I think the point is that academic writers use large terms, despite using them wrong, when diminutive ones would suffice.

They use big words for the sake of using big words. Whether they make any sense whatsoever, is entirely beside the point.

The text, as I understand it is essentially saying the same thing, using big words to obfuscate that they’re actually saying something rather boring and simple, which also has the point of obfuscating the meaning of the text to anyone who isn’t an academic; aka someone who isn’t used to such nonsensical word play.

There’s a good reason I’ve avoided any work in academic fields. They incorrectly use terms, which just muddies the water on what the hell they’re actually saying. Not only because the terms are big/less known, but because they’re often used wrong.

IMO, academics are morons who like to sound smart.

… Do you concur?

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

I understood all of that.

That’s what half a year of city college will get you.

permalink
report
reply
31 points

I’m still pissed at being forced to write in a passive voice in university. It’s awkward and carries less information, and makes it seem like nobody had any agency, science just kind of happened on its own and you were there to observe it.

I don’t know why anyone would prefer something like “An experiment was conducted and it was found that…”

To the much better “We conducted an experiment and found…”

permalink
report
reply
2 points

That also sounds odd to me. I’ve been consistently taught in school to avoid passive voice and it was a huge struggle for me for a long time (case in point). I’m attending a college in Canada for the record.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

Yeah, it’s dumb. We write like normal people in academic papers too. I don’t know why they ever taught it this way.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

“Academia is being esoteric” or in other words “academia is a pompous twat”.

permalink
report
reply
3 points

I am unable to differentiate between the signal and the ambient stochastic background.

permalink
report
reply

Science Memes

!science_memes@mander.xyz

Create post

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don’t throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

Community stats

  • 13K

    Monthly active users

  • 2.8K

    Posts

  • 68K

    Comments