On the sterility of academic writing
After almost six months of lectures, tutorials and essays I am really looking forward to temporary leave the aseptic environment of the classroom and dive into my internship.
Although I perfectly know I will have to return to academic writing in a few months, to complete my master, I am so relieved to abandon the arid academic language required in essays, presentations and tutorials and start rediscover the beauty of the written word.
Everytime I hear a “In how far…” or a “We touched upon…” I get goose-skin and my ears protest in silence: in Italian we have a saying which more or less goes “Speak like you eat” [for Italian lovers the original version is PARLA COME MANGI], which invites you to avoid over complicated wording which you would not otherwise use in your daily talks.
That doesn’t mean addressing your tutor with a cheerful YO MATE, or alike, but respecting the beauty and variety of the [in this case] English language.
Did you ever think to yourself, while striving to finish reading the literature for your next assignment, “this text is flipping boring” or “the author is repeating himself ten times”, or again noticing that the intro and conclusion of a paper sound almost identical?
Some might say that people don’t read academic papers for sheer enjoyment, but I think it would not hurt anybody to make essays sound less sterile, arid and ready-made by using a more colourful, varied and creative language rather than copy-pastying from previous essays.
But this is probably just one side of the bigger picture which is: academia are mainly self-preserving institutions where innovation is planned and must comply to given standards. The lack of encouragment towards creative thinking is a bigger issue that permeates our whole education system.
Academic writing is just one of the many symptoms for a more widespread disease.
RSA animate lecture by Sir Ken Robinson
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Claudia Costa
I come from sunny Italy, from the area of Milan, city of football, fashion and bad politicians. Maastricht will be my home for the next year while I try to become a writer/journalist and attend my Media Culture master at UM. During my almost 27 years on this planet I also lived in Germany and Czech Republic, although my dream is going back to a Mediterranean country. In the cold, Dutch rainy days I keep busy with writing, getting upset about Italian politics and learning about archaeology. The past is always better :)