"Why do we...lionize this...pseudopopulist orientation and...denounce the kind of writing most of our colleagues engage in in one way or another? Why do we reflexively believe that difficult writing...writing deemed opaque or inaccessible, is an inherent problem?" www.chronicle.com/article/ever... - ThreadSky

brianconnolly.bsky.social • 8 days ago

"Why do we...lionize this...pseudopopulist orientation and...denounce the kind of writing most of our colleagues engage in in one way or another? Why do we reflexively believe that difficult writing...writing deemed opaque or inaccessible, is an inherent problem?"

https://www.chronicle.com/article/everyone-hates-academic-writing-theyre-wrong

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brianconnolly.bsky.social•8 days ago

brianconnolly.bsky.social•8 days ago

elflawyer.bsky.social•7 days ago

Have you considered alt text?

j2parman.bsky.social•7 days ago

Academic writing per se is not necessarily "difficult writing," if by this you mean writing that's well thought-out, important, worth the time involved, etc. If you look back to Barthes or Foucault, for example, you immediately find a lucidity that draws you in and brings the ideas themselves alive.

shaniaviram.bsky.social•7 days ago

I feel like this question answers itself

hyoyoonkang.bsky.social•7 days ago

Really enjoyed this, thank you.

blueshorizon.bsky.social•7 days ago

I write articles, if you need any help

nhold.bsky.social•7 days ago

I like this piece a lot. Among other things I love that you point out that it's a pseudopopulism and that it implicitly writes off experiences like yours (and I relate so much to that bit!) where first gen students can be exhilarated by the stuff pseudopopulists eyeroll at.

brianconnolly.bsky.social•6 days ago

Thanks Nate - one of the things that has irritated me so much for so long - since the 90s to be honest - is precisely the idea that only some “elite” would ever want to read difficult writing

nhold.bsky.social•6 days ago

100%. Seems to me part of why it's *pseudo*populism is they tend not to know any people who taught themselves auto repair or who go to bible study. Like, lots of regular people do hard esoteric boring stuff that they find elevating, just a lot of that stuff is low status so it gets treated as easy.

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