Red Rock Eater News Service: [RRE]learning how to write

* Graduate students often write badly at first because they are trying to

imitate the prose they encounter in seminars. After all, don't academic

writers use a lot of big words? Yes and no. Many academics are posers

or show-offs, of course, and others just can't write. But good academic

writing is really no different from regular writing. Start with the

English language and work up to the big words from there. The big

words do have a purpose. Some serve as flags that a community can use

to identify its distinctive approach to research. Others are closely

identified with particular authors and their ideas. Sometimes a community

chooses a word in order to contrast their position with some other

position. Collect these words one at a time. As you gradually become a

member of a community you will learn the significance that its words hold.