Dr. Victoria GrinbergMar 19

Great blog by Pat Thompson on academic writing:

▶️ https://patthomson.net/2026/03/08/getting-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable/

"Academic writing is a form of thinking. It’s not the transcription of thoughts already completed, but a process of thinking itself. One of the ways we make writing harder than it needs to be is by writing as though our argument has arrived fully formed, rather than being wrestled into shape over several drafts."

This is why you *need* to write yourself, even and especially when writing is hard!

#AcademicChatter #PhD

getting comfortable with being uncomfortable 

Good academic writing means sitting with a discomfort that never entirely goes away. It’s not a discomfort that comes from having nothing to say. Most of us have more than enough ideas crowding the…

patter
Show threadRichard PaulMar 19
@vicgrinberg Why is so much academic writing impenetrable? Especially the prose in English journals (though it’s equally true for scientific journals). I produced the Folger Shakespeare Library podcast. Before that I made documentaries about NSF-funded scientists. I read tons of articles. At least 60% of them verged on incomprehensible. Oh, how I wish NotebookLM had been invented when I was doing this work.
Show threadDr. Victoria GrinbergMar 19
@Spacehistory likely because they are written with an audience of colleague in mind with whom they share a lot of context and background that a random reader from outside the field will lack. My writing in scientific papers and in scientific outreach books is very different, but so are the depth and intricacy of concepts I convey.
Show threadRichard PaulMar 19
@vicgrinberg A person needs to be taught to write like that, though. I didn’t get an advanced degree; I went straight to work. Are people actively taught to write like this in graduate school? If so, what’s the rationale? Is it exclusivity, because it feels like that’s what it is? If you write like a Member of the Club, then you’re a member of the club.
Show threadDr. Victoria Grinberg

@Spacehistory because you want to convey complex thoughts in a limited amount of text and you assume your readers do not need certain explanations because they have the same background as you.

If you, for example, read an advances recipe book, it will just tell you to "sauté" something and not explain what sauté means as opposed to a beginner one. And not explain how to clean a fish but assume you know. And if you are a knowledgeable cook, you will noy want every recipe to explain such details.

Mar 19 at 6:45pmWeb