Five Ways to Become a Stylish Writer
Many scholars have never been trained to write. We learn a lot about how to locate, collect, and analyze various types of information in graduate school. And we learn the basics of how to put this material into a dissertation that can get us a PhD. But most of us never have a graduate writing class and few of us receive feedback on our actual writing (as opposed to the contents of that writing). Once we take on roles as faculty members, there are a lot of things to think about beyond stylish writing, including general pressure to publish.
But taking the time to focus on your writing can really pay off. It not only increases your chances that people will read, enjoy, and teach your work, but it also can help you to better convey your ideas to the world. Strong scholarly writing is also a way of paying tribute to the people (and ideas) who we worked with in our research. As an anthropologist, being able to convey my research findings in ways that will stick with the reader and possibly alter how they think about some corner of the world is essential to fulfilling my obligations to my interlocutors.
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Helen Sword’s Stylish Academic Writing. If you care about scholarly writing, read this book! Sword analyzes 1,000 academic articles from various disciplines to better understand how scholars write. She uses this information to help us understand how our own writing could be improved. Below I share some of her tips with you.
Sword emphasizes that how you choose to write should be shaped by your goals for each particular piece as well as your audience (if you’re not sure about who your audience is, please read this post). For my purposes here, I’m assuming that you aim to produce writing that will reach scholars, but also a broader readership that could include undergraduates and some members of the general public. If you are imagining a different audience, not all of these tips will apply to you (for example, some types of journals and peer reviewers might consider extensive use of jargon to be a sign of knowledge).
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Consider using personal pronouns. Sword’s analysis shows that some scholars in all the disciplines she analyzed (which included computer science and evolutionary biology) use personal pronouns in their work. Employing “I” in your writing can be an effective way to draw readers into your writing. Personal pronouns make your writing persuasive and engaging and help the reader to imagine you as a writer. Using personal pronouns also pushes you to claim your arguments, which can force you to articulate them more clearly.
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Employ concrete language. Sword emphasizes this point throughout the book. Try to use concrete nouns and verbs in your writing. Doing so helps readers to better visualize, and thus understand, your concepts. Can you try and avoid verbs that academics tend to overuse (variations of to be and then verbs like show, analyze, examine)? Sword gives an example of a vivid sentence that is, indeed, written by a scholar: “Insects suck, chew, parasitize, bore, store, and even cultivate their foods to a highly sophisticated degree of specialization” (52). Wow! I don’t know anything about insects, but this sentence’s reliance on verbs like suck, chew, parasitize, and bore immediately conjured a picture I will not soon forget! Yes, this kind of thoughtful writing takes time and practice, but Sword reminds us that “stylish academic writers spend time and energy on their sentences so their readers won’t have to!” (62).
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Hook your reader. A good first paragraph should make your reader want to keep reading. It is therefore one of the most important paragraphs of any text; blow it and readers may skip to the next journal article on their long list of potential sources. Sword also reminds us that having a compelling opening to an article or chapter signals to readers that you care about them enough to want to hold their attention. It lets them know that you are keeping them in mind, a practice that is not always the case in scholarly writing! What constitutes an effective hook? There are lots of possibilities. Try starting with an engaging quotation, an intriguing anecdote drawn from your research, a vivid description of a physical object (artwork, artifact, etc.) that relates to your project, or a provocative question. As you read, pay attention to the openings of other works that hold your attention and use them as models.
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Use jargon wisely and sparingly. Different disciplines have different relationships to jargon, and journals and university presses have differing reputations for how much jargon they welcome or tolerate. Again, audience matters and jargon can be a useful way of conveying complex ideas to similarly educated readers (those who work in a similar field); however, through her analysis Sword demonstrates that many academics use jargon sloppily. For example, of the seven articles whose authors employed the word “Foucauldian” in their first several pages, only two actually engaged with his work. Both of these authors, however, did not deal with Foucault’s work directly, but rather through how other authors had discussed him. Such cursory engagement renders the claims less meaningful and risks alienating careful readers.
Sword suggests that it is best for scholars to employ jargon “gracefully, cautiously, and meticulously, taking care to keep their readers on board” (118). This means only using jargon when it truly advances your argument and, when you do use it, being careful to explain its meaning to readers. It is good practice to engage with theorists’ original work and to quote them when applicable, being sure, of course, to analyze and explain the quotes for readers. In sum, don’t use jargon to mask sloppy thinking, but rather use it to enhance your argument and the audience’s understanding of your topic.
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Provide numerous examples. Sword helpfully reminds readers that a lot of academic concepts are abstract. She argues that academic writing should both show and tell. A stylish writer “illuminates abstract ideas by grounding theory in practice and by anchoring abstract concepts in the real world” (99). What does this mean? Provide readers with plenty of examples to help bring the more abstract ideas you discuss to life. Such examples could come in many forms including anecdotes or real life examples, case studies that demonstrate how theoretical concepts apply to the real world, and fictional scenarios that help illustrate your ideas. Try and focus on this question as you write: What can help make your arguments more concrete for the reader and help your claims stay in their minds long after they have finished with your text?
In the end, you can’t do it all. Well maybe some exceptional writers can, but even academics who very much care about writing well are often pressed for time and the space to write. Sword suggests that, in these cases, academics should “adopt whatever stylistic strategies best suit their own skin.” So try some of these suggestions out and think about which feel best to you. Her book has lots of practical exercises to help you get started! If you’re feeling really stuck, developmental editors like me can also help you evaluate the stylishness of your work and advise on how to improve it. Writing is something you don’t have to do alone.
So happy writing! And if you want to make more time for your own writing or practice writing with others, please check out my new writing groups!
