Stylish Academic Writing

Author Helen Sword read and analyzed 1,000 articles published in academic journals in 10 disciplines to determine what constitutes stylish academic writing. She also studied 100 recently-published style guides to see where they agreed and differed on points of academic writing style. In Stylish Academic Writing she shares what she's learned about what makes a good article. In fourteen chapters she discusses voice, sentence construction, titles, hooks, jargon, article structure, citation style, creative academic writing, and more.Two of the chapters speak most to me: the one on voice, and the other on citation style. They both speak to pet peeves of mine. The first is when an author has to mangle their writing to avoid using the first person. Much of the writing in library science is reporting on a project or case study, in which the author is simply telling a story about how a project was launched, carried out or successfully completed. It makes no sense to not be able to use the first person when telling this story. But if you look at much of the library science literature, you'll see many of these stories told in a way that puts a distance between the reader and what's being shared. This makes the article harder to read, and less interesting. Articles should be written in a way that conveys all of the important information that the author is trying to share, but in a way that will increase readership. Writing in the first person can help with that goal. Sword advocates for the use of the first person when possible.My second pet peeve has to do with citation styles that require the author to put names, dates, and sometimes page numbers in parentheses right in the text. When I read an article that has a lot of citations, I sometimes find it difficult to follow the threads of a sentence or paragraph through all of these parenthetical citations. The simple use of endnotes, identified with a superscripted number, avoids this problem. Sentences and paragraphs with the simple numbered indication of an endnote are much easier to read and comprehend than one with the citations in parentheses interrupting the flow. Again, the goal is to share information and increase the readership of each article, and a simpler citation style does that. Sword supports the use of simpler citation styles that don't interrupt the flow of the article.While I'm only highlighting two issues in this review, Sword's book is full of good advice. She illustrates all of her chapters with both good and bad examples so readers can understand what makes good writing, and what hinders comprehension. I believe this book would be useful to all academics who want to improve their writing.

This is a much-needed book for academia. The problem that the author describes about academic writing is very true and so commonly practiced by everyone. I also try to use impersonal passive sentences to achieve an objective tone in my writing. I also try to avoid using any first person pronouns. I also try to limit my verbs to the weak ones such as "be", "show", "indicate" and etc. So I can definitely relate to all the problems with academic writing that the author points out. Her solutions are also very useful. Before reading this book, in some of my "less-academic" writings, I had already used many of the techniques that the author proposes. So her solutions are also very relatable. All in all, I think this is an excellent book and it does remind us that the quality of academic writing does not have to be negatively correlated with linguistic creativity.But of course I think there are practical reasons for not following the author's advice in many cases as well. For example, most of us read papers to find information that we need. Thus a predictable structure of writing and very little figurative language or very little use of "unnecessary literary flare" are definitely very welcome. If we can just glance at a 50-page paper and figure out where we can find the information we need, and finish reading those paragraphs in the least amount of time possible, we are making good progress. The kind of stylish writing that the author proposes is sometimes "verbose" and not straight to the point. Second, using too much creative writing for academic purposes might not present the academic ideas correctly. Sometimes academic writing has to be very precise. Using literary techniques sometimes brings about unnecessary vagueness. Thus I think maybe that is also one reason why some authors try to avoid using literary language in their scientific work.One more thing that I want to point out is that the author holds the view that we as educated readers and peers should be able to understand the work of our peers in other disciplines if they write clearly. I think this is true in some cases. But for many disciplines there are just so much terminology, conceptual framework, contextual knowledge that it is just not possible for a layperson to understand the writings in those disciplines.

Stylish Academic Writing (SAW) changed the way I view academic writing: completing my MA in Early Childhood Development, Sword's advice provides the courage and confidence to be brave in style, liberating me from the conventions of academic writing. Sword writes with flair and mild humour, reading it in two days; I was hooked. Her approach is revelationary, providing immediate results. Stylish Academic Writing has become a 'go to' reference when I need encouragement or inspiration; my writing has improved, ensuring I am better equipped to critique other's work. My literature review is imminent, and Helen ( I feel like she is an additional supervisor at this stage) has provided the licence to forgo anything referred to as 'turgid writing'... I feel liberated. I am a diligent student and love the area of research I'm involved with; tenacity is my middle name. However; until I read SAW, I viewed my inability to get through some of the jargon-filled, dense journal articles as my fault. This shift in thinking has made space for more productive reading, unafraid to put something down and find another more accessible research paper when needed. I have started to notice the academic flair of others and can identify preferences. Stylish Academic Writing has rapidly become my touchstone, and Helen Sword is my new mind-crush... Additionally, I recommend you check out 'The Writer's Diet', a free, online service, that dissects your writing, providing a diagnosis...anything beyond 'fit and trim' and it's back to the writing table...

One of the most helpful bits was write a short draft and then suggest five other ways of writing that chapter. Wow... this is a paradigm shifting approach to how a chapter is written by a student bogged down by the arguments and content. Love Helen Sword and just reading a chapter a day first thing, sorted me out. It gave me a real building block clarity to interspersing those short sentences and not 'bothering' about what I was actually doing there. Gifted this to another student yesterday and will keep on recommending!

One Size Fits All?: A Review of Stylish Academic Writing by Helen SwordHelen Sword invites us in Stylish Academic Writing to open our windows wide to let the light in, she prompts us to shuffle our furniture around and add some tasteful cushions and candlesticks to make guests feel welcomed and inspired. Such an approach might work very nicely for the dean’s rooms, but what about the Spartan office of a young tutor or even the chaotic accommodation of most undergraduates? Would a trendy anecdote help a researcher to get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal? Would a brave, ambitious use of I boost up marks for an essay?Responses to Sword’s suggestions for stylish academic writing are likely to reflect the very divide in academic culture that her book explores. Helen Sword has carried out extensive research, looking at a wealth of academic articles in a wide range of disciplines, mining them for clichés and gems alike. She assures us that a considerable number of authors now dare to use I, instead of the ubiquitous impersonal structures, reaching out to their readers. They also deploy techniques more common in newspapers and literary texts, such as metaphors, analogies, humour and catchy titles. Sword exhorts us to write more audaciously, to claim our freedom from disciplinary and institutional straitjackets, to communicate abstract matters in a clear and graphic way. If this attitude can seem like artistic hubris, it is also worth remembering that learners do benefit more from such simple, clear explanations. Ultimately, it is to be hoped that articles are still written for an educational purpose, rather than simple career advancement. However, teachers are also very aware of how difficult it is for most students to differentiate between journalistic and academic prose. We spend a lot of energy showing them how to write in an academic style, and in many courses that means an impersonal, abstract style with little appreciation for confusing room layouts and fanciful ornaments.It is tempting and probably worthwhile to extract some good advice from Sword's book to help our learners to improve the sentences and structure of their work: keep nouns and verbs close together; use concrete nouns and dynamic verbs; take care with all those words that litter your writing, be, it, this, there. We can convince students to take the advice if we add that these techniques can lead to more concise expression, hence keeping to the word count in assignments. De-cluttering as Sword suggests, minimizing adjectives, adverbs and other extraneous elements, will empower our students in their hard efforts to synthesize sources and answer questions to the point.On the other hand, I would weigh more carefully the possibility of inviting them to use a personal voice, in the form of the pronoun I, inventive analogies or relevant anecdotes, unless these devices are tolerated or even valued in their disciplines and institutions. The approach is clearly viable for confident professionals who feel well supported in their research and continuous professional development. However, it still blurs the lines between journalistic and academic prose, thus potentially confusing undergraduates. As a tutor, I may have the power to reward a student for such creative efforts, but once they become an integrated aspect of somebody's writing style, will future tutors feel the same as me? Could we end up giving mixed signals?Sword's book includes very interesting reflections about the effect that referencing styles have on the way an academic thinks, researches and writes. It is argued that some perspective on point of view is sacrificed in conventions that do not use the authors' first names: is it a man or a woman giving the information in this particular angle? Where titles are not reproduced in the body of the text, we lose the feeling that research is about discussing books. Referencing systems are rules by which we have to play in specific leagues or sports, and we have learnt to adapt to them in diverse circumstances. Similarly, we teachers could explain to students that certain rules are not written in stone, but rather that at various stages in their studies and careers they will be writing in different styles. Ideally, we would be given the opportunity to train them in a variety of styles so they are equipped for life.Sword, Helen (2012), Stylish Academic Writing, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, Harvard University Press

I bought this as a resource for an undergraduate essay writing class that I teach, but it's turned out to be very useful in my own writing. Sword identifies a number of key problems with much academic writing - poor structure, too many abstract nouns, horrible titles, unnecessary use of jargon, etc. - that I was embarrassed to identify in my own written work. Each chapter ends with suggestions for improving your own writing - some of which I've already put to the test, and found incredibly helpful. My only complaint - and it's a relatively minor one - is that some chapters are a bit heavy on quantitative data. It's great to know that Sword has done her homework, but a bit tedious to have to read about it in so much detail! Apart from that - highly recommended.

Good read, especially if read together with other insightful books on better academic and related writing.

Great book