Academic-style writing persists because it works

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Style Pass
2024-11-10 19:30:14

Academic-style writing is characterized by defensive or hedging language, an abundance of citations, and being overly charitable to the opposing side by writing for the most skeptical reader in mind or anticipating objections. However, it’s criticized as being inauthentic or ambiguous. Or it reads as if the writer is prevaricating or beating around the bush instead of just saying what is on his or her mind. This can make the writing seem confusing or needlessly complex.

I despise the "every sentence is a citation" style of academic writing when people are making arguments about social phenomena. It feels designed to convey the impression of being bulletproof while being little more than a web of opinion backed by others' opinions.

In addition to citations, a related characteristic is the ‘the wall of links’ style, in which an entire paragraph of an article is composed of hyperlinks instead of footnotes, or an excessive number of links are peppered throughout the article, similar to Wikipedia. I observed this as far back in 2017, but now it’s become ubiquitous. For example, the second paragraph of an Atlantic article about USB-C connectors has six outgoing links compared to the other paragraphs having few or no links:

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