I have just been reviewing some academic papers, and that can be depressing. Not only are many of the papers low on content, but they are frequently very poorly written too.
This is not a new phenomen, as according to Watson in Ideas: From Fire to Freud (p493) the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society was the first academic journal, and the Fellows demanded good English in the papers, so they appointed the poet John Dryden to a committee to oversee the writing style of scientists.
What a brilliant idea.
and which poet should have the job now?
1 comment:
A scientifically proved poet, I guess...
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