Two great pieces of advice

Earlier this year I read two great blog posts by two awesome academic writing experts. Professor Pat Thomson talked about 'propositional density', or - as she calls it - chewing a mouthful of cotton wool. "A proposition is a [...] statement that cannot be made simpler. So The cat sat on the mat. Now take, Schrödinger’s cat sat on the mat. I've added something much more than the name Schrödinger. I've added a reference to a famous 'thought experiment’ in quantum physics. The statement now has serious propositional density" (Thomson, 2022).

Wow. Propositional density. That is why we get indigestion when reading some academic writing.

Even better, Inger Mewburn provides some reasons why we get anxious reading academic writing. Apparently "No sentence should be longer than 50 words. Read the text aloud to check the ‘breathing rhythm’ is right". We humans "sub vocalise when silent reading (move [our] jaw and tongue, but not enough to produce sound). Readers also tend to breathe in and out around sentence structure. Try reading a couple of long sentences out loud – you literally start to run out of air. Running out of air makes humans feel anxious. Here’s the kicker: [...]our reader is so used to sub vocalising they won’t realise their anxiety is simply a lack of air. They may assume the anxiety is caused by the text" (Mewburn, 2022). Anxiety is not a place we want our reader to visit... unless we WANT to make them anxious. 

In addition, there are solutions for getting rid of the propositional density cotton wool, "Just like there is a habitable zone in our solar system where Earth-like planets can exist, so there is a comfortable sentence length. Aim to keep most sentences between 25-35 words long. Save shorter ones for emphasis and longer ones for when you truly can’t make sense with fewer words. And yes, references count as words because that’s how readers experience them (sorry not sorry). Always read a piece aloud before you send it to someone else – this will help you spot awkward phrasing" (Mewburn, 2022). 

This is a piece of kit I have suggested to students in the past: read your work aloud. Few do it though. However, I think I am going to do it for myself, so I can spot my propositional density and break it down into breathable chunks. I will try to eliminate my cotton wool.

Sam

References:

Mewburn, I. (1 June 2022). How to unf*ck your writing – a check list . Thesis Whisperer. https://thesiswhisperer.com/2022/06/01/how-to-unfuck-your-writing-a-check-list/

Thomson, P. (6 June 2022). A helpful steer on writing and revising. https://patthomson.net/2022/06/06/propositional-density-a-helpful-steer-on-writing-and-revising/