People assume academic writing is broken because it’s “hard”.
That’s not the real issue.
What actually happened
Academic writing drifted into a style that rewards:
- Complexity over clarity
- Formality over understanding
- Sounding correct over being clear
So, writing becomes harder to read than necessary.
The effect
You get:
- Ideas buried under language
- Sentences that hide meaning
- Writing that feels intelligent but isn’t always accessible
The real problem
Clarity stopped being the priority.
Signal strength got replaced by tone.
Useful reading
- Plain language movement:
https://digital.gov/guides/plain-language - Why readability matters:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/legibility-readability-comprehension/
Takeaway
Good writing isn’t about sounding smart.
It’s about making thinking easier for someone else.
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