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In a message dated 97-02-28 22:38:25 EST, dewise -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM writes:
<< This was one of the stuffiest and most pompous journals I have ever seen.
I queried the editor and was told something to the effect that this style
was "expected" in scholarly journals....This volume was a better sleeping
pill than David Copperfield or The Dead Sea Scrolls. >>
If the audience expected a "pompous" and "arrogant" writing style and got it,
then the editor knows what he's doing. Giving the audience what they want is
one of the ten commandments of tech writing (don't ask me what the other nine
are). As for academic pretention, it's a cycle. Young writers attempt to
emulate what they read to please their profs and boost their grades. The
result can be a hideous amalgamation of
highfalutincircumlocutorypontification and good intentions. It wasn't until I
entered the tech writing program for my grad degree that this style of
writing was discouraged -- at least for me.
Dawn
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