Maybe Cara has stated my case more clearly than I have, but I would only add that, to me at least, clarity IS beauty.
WT "Eschew obfuscation." --author unknown ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cara Lin Bridgman" <cara....@msa.hinet.net> To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:16 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] now I've seen it all > 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 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 270.14.147/2628 - Release Date: 01/17/10 07:35:00
