I was reading Recent Ph.D's post this morning on the love of words. Atrocious and obtuse writing is considered an ideal in certain parts of my field. I'm also willing to admit that my own writing has gotten significantly worse during my academic tenure. I'm known among friends and family for my ability to pack tons of stuff into a relative small volume. I apparently now do the same with clauses in a sentence. Is there a 12-step program for comma-addiction? I've mostly recovered from my affection for the semi-colon; however, I still occasionally relapse. On a related note, I thought I would send an update on Fluffy.
One (out of four) committee members have read a few chapters of Fluffy and made comments. These comments consisted almost entirely of rewriting my sentences so that they were "clearer" and "more academic." Yeah, I laughed too. Ze has changed every "so" into a "therefore" or "consequently" because those sound much more science-y in hir opinion. I haven't run the statistical test yet but I think the increase in semi-colons is significant. All this while wanting to delete sections that actually form important parts of various arguments because those are not hir field and ze wasn't interested in them. Maybe next round I should use the academic sentence generator and see if that makes anything "clearer." I suppose I should just be happy someone is reading it. Guess the rest of my committee is going for the surprise reveal at my defense.
Sorry posts are not getting any more regular. Fluffy sends its regards from the toxic genetics lab where it's being mutated into an even more hideous and fuzzy creature.
1 comment:
I like the fact that you've nicknamed your dissertation "Fluffy". I didn't have a name for mine other than "The Thing". Wow..semi-colons. I rarely used those since I can't stand them to be honest. I have a strong desire to edit them out of text if I see them. I don't know why but I do.
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