Is it really oversimplification and is it really a problem? I agree
that things 8th graders were reading 100 years ago are things college
students struggle with now. Take children's literature, such as Alice
in Wonderland (which does not present a wordy style) or What Katy Did
Next (which is a wordy case in point). Neither book simplifies its
vocabulary for younger readers. Since English does have an
astonishingly huge vocabulary, it is sad if American college students do
not have the vocabulary to read papers and books written as little as 50
years ago (think of some of those early papers in Foundations in Ecology).
Orwell, via Jane Shevsov, makes excellent points. These are points I
keep trying to make to my students who are Taiwanese, but have to write
papers in English. An aunt of mine, who teaches writing classes to
American college students has noticed a tendency to use long words when
there are plenty of short words that are as good or better.
I tell my students that the most important reason for writing a paper is
communication. If readers cannot understand it, then why write the
paper? In otherwords, if we have to choose between writing clearly and
writing beautifully, scientists should choose writing clearly every
time. It's one thing to write beautifully, and some scientists do write
beautifully and clearly, but we have to remember that science is an
international endeavor and most readers of scientific papers are in the
same shape as my students--reading English as a second language. If we
use complicated sentence structure, large words, foreign phrases, and
cultural allusions, then our foreign colleagues will have a terrible
time trying to understand our papers.
Another thing I keep telling my students is that they do need to know
the jargon of their field, if only because they will encounter it in
texts and papers. They do not, however, have to use this jargon when
writing their own papers. Frankly, a lot of the bad writing we see in
scientific papers is just the result of bad habits. Like all bad
habits, they're infectious. My students pick up awkward and wordy and
jargon-filled phrasing from the papers they read.
CL
Jane Shevtsov wrote:
> And here are Orwell's prescriptions:
>
> "(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you
> are used to seeing in print.
> (ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
> (iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
> (iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
> (v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if
> you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
> (vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright
barbarous."
>
> Rules 2-5 lead to precisely the kind of oversimplification of language
> that you worry about. I do not know what should be done about it or
> even if it really is a problem. (The case can be made that your
> reading comprehension skills should match the material you are
> actually likely to encounter, not more challenging material that few
> people write any more.) Still, it would be interesting to find out
> what our colleagues in English departments think of the situation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cara Lin Bridgman cara....@msa.hinet.net
P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin
Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com
Taichung County 43499
Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
