Re: Opinion, Fact, and the Defense of Context (Was Re: Lingua Franca Today) fairly long, unfortunately!
In an academic context, the audience that is to receive the communicationYes, they usually will. However, like anyone else, they will understand more quickly and with less effort if an article is written clearly.
will understand the lingua franca/academic jargon/subject-specific
communicative shorthand; others have no reason to try, do they?
Also, my bias is that the writer is the one who should make the effort to communicate, not the audience. To thrust most of the burden of communication on to the audience has always seemed a lack of courtesy to me. The fact that this lack of courtesy is widespread doesn't change what it (he says, waspishly).
It is neither 'fair' nor appropriate, imo, toWhy not? The career prospects of academics depends on their writing, so I don't see why they can't be expected to do it well. If they're going to succeed in their career, they'll be doing enough of it to learn **something** (or so I would have thought).
expect a researcher who spends most of his/her working hours in a rat
lab--or anyone else in 'academia'--to be what professional writers would
consider a 'good writer!'
Admittedly, however, I'm infected with a George Orwell sort of Puritianism - that is, I believe that someone who is too lazy to put their thoughts into decent English is either a sloppy thinker or an unoriginal one trying to hide the fact. Starting from this assumption, it follows that if someone's writingis poor, then the chances are strong that the quality of their thought is poor, too.
Which makes me question why they bother, and why they have the nerve to claim some of anybody's time.
I was taught that the purpose of all non-mechanical 'utterance'--whether itTo be exact, what I meant to say was that the type of writing that I'm disparaging is not primarily concerned with explicating its topic. Its main agenda seems to be to provide proof that the writer belongs to the elite, or is clever. In other words, what it communicates is something about the writer's ego, or possibily insecurities.
be oral, musical, visual, written, or given by means of signs and
symbols--is to convey information from one entity to another.
Bruce seems to be equating the use of academic (in this case) 'linguaIt's not that the use of jargon that I'm objecting to. Obviously, different disciplines evolve vocabularies as required.
franca' with 'pretentiousness,' and by extension, 'scholarship' with good
writing.' I don't think these are valid equations.
Rather, it's the unnecessary use of jargon that's my target. Take, for example, "lingua franca" (Please! Some people on the list are no doubt saying). It might be appropriate to use in a linguistic context (although I would personally prefer "trading language" as a better term, because it gives a sense of how such languages come about). However, in any other context, it's an embellishment. Being a non-English word, it seems to have more authority (why else do people use a foreign word when there's a perfectly good English equivalent?) Although it's a metaphor, it's at once an obscure one, whose origins very few people understand, and a dead one, since it does not conjure up a sense of all the interactions and historical contexts that produces such a language in the average person's mind if the do understand the origin of the word.
Sidebar: the creation or use of unnecessary jargon is a logical fallacy unique to academia. Gregory Bateson called this "dormitive explanation": the creation of an illusion of understanding by giving something a different name. The classical example, borrowed from Moliere, is to say that opium puts people to sleep because it contains a dormitive principle - in other words, that it puts people to sleep because it contains something that puts people to sleep. This jargon creates an illusion of understanding without actually helping understanding.
And sandwiched perilously between 'good scholarship or good ideas,' andUnfortunately, you're right. I'm just biting the hand that feeds me. Like you, I make my living because other people don't use words well. But they could all try a little harder, all the same. If something is worth writing down, it's worth writing well. Harumph!!
'mediocre rehashes and safe conclusions,' lies (probably) most of the
(mostly careful) writing and speaking of ordinary teachers and researchers,
folks whose life work consists in trying (by whatever means necessary, in
some cases <grins>) to 'communicate' some sort of information from their
heads to the heads--and hearts--of their
students/clients/subscribers/employers...
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
"To bring the dead to life
Is no great magic.
Few are wholly dead:
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a live flame will start."
- Robert Graves, "To Bring the Dead to Life"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
References:
RE: Lingua Franca Today: From: Beilby, Margaret
Re: Lingua Franca Today: From: Bruce Byfield
Opinion, Fact, and the Defense of Context (Was Re: Lingua Franca Today) fairly long, unfortunately!: From: Melody Akins
Previous by Author:
Re: Lingua Franca Today
Next by Author:
Re: Gray hair and first impressions
Previous by Thread:
Opinion, Fact, and the Defense of Context (Was Re: Lingua Franca Today) fairly long, unfortunately!
Next by Thread:
Re: Lingua Franca Today
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads