Incoherent Style of Academic Writing

[downer]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the sadly defunct bad writing contest.

http://www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm

[Hibush]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the sadly defunct bad writing contest.

http://www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm

The Bad Writing Contest link did not load for me, so the site may be as defunct as the contest. Prof. Dutton is these ten years passed. The website is at the Wayback Machine, though.

But is the contest really defunct? Or is it simply waiting for a disruptive academic entrepreneur to revive it. How about somebody here, with help from grad students?

While not academic writing, the Bulwer Lytton Fiction contest endures. This year's winner, for reference: "Her Dear John missive flapped unambiguously in the windy breeze, hanging like a pizza menu on the doorknob of my mind."

One merit of the BLWC is that the entire winning work can be included in a brief forum post. While the Lytonniad attracts bad writing, it is concise.

[downer]

The link works fine for me.

[Juvenal]

What does this "head home" mean? I seem to have some vague recollection of the term, but its significance is obscure.

I've had the great good fortune not to miss a single day at work--the actual, physical location--since the pandemic began.  Even when we were closed to the public, somebody had to be there to answer the phone and do other caretaker stuff.  That was me.  It was eerie working in that empty building.

The other day I was shoveling snow and realized it was a work day and normally I'd have had to get up in the dark to shovel so I could be at work on time. Now, with everything asynchronous, I can run errands, etc. during the day, check messages periodically, and everything just ticks along in the background. It's going to be an adjustment to get back to what was normal for decades.

That's what I dislike. Obviously, the process of going into work is often a pain in the moment, but it creates a structure. Without it, I have all of the stress and anxiety of teaching but it all just happens in my house without all of the external stimulus that gives it context.

I know this all too well.  I retired, but adjuncted a course a semester, and was lucky that my chair gave me an office, etc.  It provided structure to the days.  Having neither a course nor an office (it's still there, but inaccessible) makes the days kind of vague and vaporous.  IS it Sunday?  Bourbon has become too close a friend...

[pgher]

My son is a math major and found this: https://thatsmathematics.com/mathgen/. He said its output is just as intelligible as the course he's taking this semester. I thought it was appropriate here. My experience is that mathematicians do their best to obfuscate the most simple concept with arcane terminology.

[Hibush]

This post is not just OT, it is the very opposite.

This nugget is from today's Nobel Lecture of Louise Glück, literature laureate.

She writes about the relationship between an academic writer and their reader.

We were an elite, companions in invisibility, a fact known only to us, which each corroborated for the other. In the world, we were nobody.

[fourhats]

I've heard it said that when a German historian wrote a three-volume work, the third volume contained the verbs.

A little late to this, but I always loved Mark Twain's saying that German is the only language where you can jump into the ocean with the beginning of a sentence and finally emerge on the opposite shore with the verb.

[apl68]

I've heard it said that when a German historian wrote a three-volume work, the third volume contained the verbs.

A little late to this, but I always loved Mark Twain's saying that German is the only language where you can jump into the ocean with the beginning of a sentence and finally emerge on the opposite shore with the verb.

And that German was in danger of becoming a dead language--because only the dead could ever have enough time to learn it.

[Juvenal]

I've heard it said that when a German historian wrote a three-volume work, the third volume contained the verbs.

A little late to this, but I always loved Mark Twain's saying that German is the only language where you can jump into the ocean with the beginning of a sentence and finally emerge on the opposite shore with the verb.

And that German was in danger of becoming a dead language--because only the dead could ever have enough time to learn it.

William James (studying there) wrote home that German was a language without any of the modern improvements.  Or something like that.

[mamselle]

Katherine Mansfield had some interesting observations as well...

M.

[apl68]

For some reason "Incoherent Style" in the thread title makes me think of the way art historians speak of different styles. 

"And this is an excellent example of the Incoherent Style of archaic Greek sculpture."

[marshwiggle]

For some reason "Incoherent Style" in the thread title makes me think of the way art historians speak of different styles. 

"And this is an excellent example of the Incoherent Style of archaic Greek sculpture."

How could you know if you had one? Wouldn't calling something "an example" disqualify it on the grounds that it was too coherent to a standard?

[apl68]

For some reason "Incoherent Style" in the thread title makes me think of the way art historians speak of different styles. 

"And this is an excellent example of the Incoherent Style of archaic Greek sculpture."

How could you know if you had one? Wouldn't calling something "an example" disqualify it on the grounds that it was too coherent to a standard?

A question that has puzzled are historians for generations!

[marshwiggle]

For some reason "Incoherent Style" in the thread title makes me think of the way art historians speak of different styles. 

"And this is an excellent example of the Incoherent Style of archaic Greek sculpture."

How could you know if you had one? Wouldn't calling something "an example" disqualify it on the grounds that it was too coherent to a standard?

A question that has puzzled are historians for generations!

It reminds me of this:
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1995/01/09

[apl68]

For some reason "Incoherent Style" in the thread title makes me think of the way art historians speak of different styles. 

"And this is an excellent example of the Incoherent Style of archaic Greek sculpture."

How could you know if you had one? Wouldn't calling something "an example" disqualify it on the grounds that it was too coherent to a standard?

A question that has puzzled are historians for generations!

It reminds me of this:
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1995/01/09

LOL