Articles and books by university academics, so often turgid and inaccessible, can and should be a pleasure both to write and read, she says.
Rather than be critical and negative, she takes “a positive and inspiring approach”, giving “examples of the best writing”.
“It is not hard to write stylishly,” says Dr Sword, an associate professor in the Centre for Academic Development at The University of Auckland. “My message is: The gates are open — just give them a push.”
She sees the impenetrable prose endemic in academic writing as a serious barrier to communication. “There is no point in doing research if you can’t communicate what you have done. In fact you are hampering your career.
“I am trying to dispel the myth that to be respected as an academic you have to write wooden and impersonal prose.”
Jargon per se is not the main flaw of such writing, says Dr Sword. It is typically full of weak verbs and multiple abstract nouns, flabby and poorly crafted. “The trick is to take abstract ideas and find ways of describing them in real-world, concrete language.”
Crafting well-written prose is time-consuming, says Dr Sword. “But if you are not taking that time, you are asking the reader to do so.”
At her workshops on academic writing, participants tell her they “feel more confident and inspired to enjoy writing, to follow their instincts and write the way they want”.
In pointing the way to writing that is readable, succinct and elegant, her book showcases exemplary academic prose from across the world. It includes snippets by four University of Auckland staff: Professor Shanthi Ameratunga (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd (English), Emeritus Professor Michael Corballis (Psychology) and Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond (Māori Studies).
Anne Salmond’s sentences Dr Sword describes as “concise, verb driven, and chock-full of concrete detail” while an anecdote by Michael Corballis is “perfectly pitched…apt, unusual, humorous”.
Dr Sword’s book works through such practical aspects of writing as “smart sentencing”, “tempting titles”, chapter openings, “jargonitis”, structure, and “points of reference”.
Her aim, as stated in the preface, is to “start a stylistic revolution that will end in improved reading conditions for all”. Yet far from peddling generic, one-size-fits-all advice she is encouraging writers to adopt whatever styles best suit them. “Stylish academic writing can be serious, entertaining, straightforward, poetic, unpretentious, ornate, intimate, impersonal, and much in between”.
Stylish academic writing will be on sale at the University Bookshop and elsewhere for $39.95.
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