do readers really need to know at this point?’) all the way
through your text; and then to deliver that, no more and no
less. All these pressures make your style more accessible.
However, there are also three general pressures in academic
work which will always push you towards reducing the accessi-
bility of your text. As the right-hand column in Table 5.1
shows, the more these factors are emphasized the more difficult
and the less accessible your text will seem:
◆ Professional authenticityis often seen (especially by younger
scholars) in terms of mastering a specialized argot, learning
and using an ‘alchemical’ terminology confined to insiders
and hence incomprehensible to outsiders. Like all
specialized vocabularies there is often a case for using
professional jargon where it is more precise, fine-tuned, and
helps avoid the multiple meanings and normative or value
connotations often inherent in equivalent ordinary
language terms. But students often lose sight of this
rationale behind a prolific use of complex vocabularies and
grammatical constructions, designed only to demonstrate
the writer’s qualifications as a member of the ‘initiated’.
◆ Reproducing the feel of an original text[or a case study or a
field experience or a data set] has a somewhat similar effect.
Here an analyst’s style of writing is pulled towards the
subject she is covering. For example, an expositor of
WRITING CLEARLY◆ 107Table 5.1 How different pressures on authors improve or
worsen the accessibility of their text
Factors generally Factors which initially Factors generally
increasing the improve your text, but worsening the
accessibility may impede accessibility accessibility of
of your text if taken too far your text
◆Structural ◆Push for parsimonious ◆Professional
considerations phrasing authenticity
◆Logical and ◆‘Say it once and say it ◆Reproducing the
developmental right’ feel of an
pressures ◆Maximizing originality original text
◆Readability ◆Cramming in
◆Managing readers’ substantive
expectations content