How to support this grad student?

[HappilyTenured]

Hey guys,

One of my students who has a background in journalism is currently pursuing a graduate degree in my field (humanities and social sciences). Their writing is excellent and very strong, but I've noticed that they write much more like a journalist/columnist than a scholar or researcher. I have a feeling that this is a problem and that it may be a source of criticism for them from other scholars. They are aware that this is a problem, and I've told them this several times. But there doesn't seem to be any improvement every time they send me chapters of their work.

What advice should I give them to make sure that their writing is "academic writing" and meets the standards of academic writing? 

[Hibush]

The clarity of journalistic writing is likely very beneficial for conveying scholarly ideas. That clarity could result in high impact as well as criticism from those who rely on obfuscation. It is well worth discussing the various dimensions of the issue so the student can chose the path they think best for them.

[Wahoo Redux]

Journalism is a skillset using words.  It is easy in its fundamentals but difficult to do really well.  Journalists are "wordsmiths," and your average newspaper story follows a very definite top-down paradigm that journalists are taught from day one.  Magazine writing is a different story.

Nevertheless, journalism should be good training for scholarship.  I've known at least two people who went from fulltime journalism to English grad school, and they both did fine.

It might help if you could explain a little more why this person's journalistic training is hindering their scholarship.

Is it brevity of style?  Reporters are told to keep any figurative language out of the mix, avoid opinion unless it is attributed to someone not the reporter, and write in short, punchy sentences and paragraphs.  Paragraphs are generally one sentence, maybe two.  And AP style is very, very particular (it's a real PITA, if you ask me). 

Is your student writing like this?

[Puget]

Is it really not meeting academic "standards" or just your field's typical academic style? If it is truly not meeting standards, then you need to provide detailed comments on their drafts as to what is missing/wrong with it, and go over these comments with them.

But as others have mentioned, if they are just writing in a more journalistic style than typical academic writing in your discipline, it is worth considering if this might be a breath of fresh air rather than a problem. Most academics would really benefit from learning to write succinct, clear, punchy and straightforward prose. This is something I really work on with my students, who sometimes come into my (science) field with bad habits from college writing classes (taught almost entirely by humanities instructors)- I'm forever telling them to simplify sentence structures, cut unnecessary words, etc.

[Parasaurolophus]

Give them a few different examples of excellent stylists in your field, and ask them to emulate them for the next thing they write for you. They can develop their own style once they've learned to imitate well, using that as a basis.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Is it really not meeting academic "standards" or just your field's typical academic style? If it is truly not meeting standards, then you need to provide detailed comments on their drafts as to what is missing/wrong with it, and go over these comments with them.

But as others have mentioned, if they are just writing in a more journalistic style than typical academic writing in your discipline, it is worth considering if this might be a breath of fresh air rather than a problem. Most academics would really benefit from learning to write succinct, clear, punchy and straightforward prose. This is something I really work on with my students, who sometimes come into my (science) field with bad habits from college writing classes (taught almost entirely by humanities instructors)- I'm forever telling them to simplify sentence structures, cut unnecessary words, etc.

Yes this is the question. Is this person just writing in a clearer and simpler style, while still doing the research in accordance with best practices? If so, then there is nothing to fix. But if the work is more journalistic in the sense that this student is relying on a handful of interviews as a research method, being confrontational with interviewees, etc., then there is a problem that you need to help them to deal with.