Re:The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing
by nmrm2 on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @09:37AM
(#10457868)
> because of the stranglehold journalistic publications have on the dissemination of scientific work...
But they don't.
There are media for longer form presentations of ideas -- dissertations, books, and lecture notes (a.k.a. early drafts of books) come to mind. Each of these is de facto mandatory for a successful academic career in science. A lot of academics also publish blogs, documented software packages, etc.
The complaints about jargon in journal articles and conference proceedings from non-scientists or from scientists talking about an area other than their own come across, to me, as kind of self-centered. Sometimes laypeople (or even scientifically literate generalists) aren't the target audience of a text. That doesn't mean there's some big problem with the world.
If I had a dime for every time someone who's never taken a non-intro science course complained about not understanding a scientific publication...
But they don't.
There are media for longer form presentations of ideas -- dissertations, books, and lecture notes (a.k.a. early drafts of books) come to mind. Each of these is de facto mandatory for a successful academic career in science. A lot of academics also publish blogs, documented software packages, etc.
The complaints about jargon in journal articles and conference proceedings from non-scientists or from scientists talking about an area other than their own come across, to me, as kind of self-centered. Sometimes laypeople (or even scientifically literate generalists) aren't the target audience of a text. That doesn't mean there's some big problem with the world.
If I had a dime for every time someone who's never taken a non-intro science course complained about not understanding a scientific publication...