Generally disagree with this. Overall, I think the EA forum norms are fairly good in terms of writing style and quality, but I might even be inclined to push in the other direction.
After being bombarded with modern American writing advice since University, I’ve recently become disillusioned with the simplifying, homogenising trend of internationalized English, in favour of a language that borrows from the best of our linguistic traditions.
I find that the short-sentence, short-word, bullet point style of writing encourages you to skim, while more flowing and elegant language forces the reader to read aloud, and to follow the cadences of the speaker, which promotes a very different state of mind for reading and absorbing information.
To quote from the opening passage Chapter 2 of Utilitarianism by JS Mill:
“A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence. We may give what explanation we please of this unwillingness; we may attribute it to pride, a name which is given indiscriminately to some of the most and to some of the least estimable feelings of which mankind are capable; we may refer it to the love of liberty and personal independence, as appeal to which was with the Stoics one of the most effective means for the inculcation of it; to the love of power or to the love of excitement, both of which do really enter into and contribute to it; but its most appropriate appellation is a sense of dignity, which all human beings possess in one form or other, and in some, though by no means in exact, proportion to their higher faculties, and which is so essential a part of the happiness of those in whom it is strong that nothing which conflicts with it could be otherwise than momentarily an object of desire to them.”
Utterly impossible to skim, and what a joy to read!
Just to give you a data point from a non-native speaker who likes literature and languages, this quote wasn’t a joy to read for me since it would have taken me a very long time to understand what this is about if I would not have known the context. So I am not sure what you mean by the best linguistic traditions – I think simple language can be elegant too.
It is a more joyful sentence in the context, admittedly.
Simple language can be elegant, of course, and there are excellent writers with a range of different styles and levels of simplicity. I wouldn’t dream of saying that everyone should be striving for 200-word sentences, nor that we should be imitating Victorian-era philosophy, but I do think that the trends of relentless simplifying and trimming that editors and style guides foist upon budding writers have diminished the English language.
I find that the short-sentence, short-word, bullet point style of writing encourages you to skim, while more flowing and elegant language forces the reader to read aloud, and to follow the cadences of the speaker, which promotes a very different state of mind for reading and absorbing information.
But… The most common and advocated style here is exactly skimmable bullet points, while prose is many times frowned upon. And the only richness of language used is jargon. This is the opposite of what you say you want.
Also, like Ada-Maaria, the long quote was hard for me to read as a non-native, and I skipped it. That’s not to say that I think communication should be confined to short sentences and simplified language. Just that thought has to be put into clarity and accessibility as well.
Generally disagree with this. Overall, I think the EA forum norms are fairly good in terms of writing style and quality, but I might even be inclined to push in the other direction.
After being bombarded with modern American writing advice since University, I’ve recently become disillusioned with the simplifying, homogenising trend of internationalized English, in favour of a language that borrows from the best of our linguistic traditions.
I find that the short-sentence, short-word, bullet point style of writing encourages you to skim, while more flowing and elegant language forces the reader to read aloud, and to follow the cadences of the speaker, which promotes a very different state of mind for reading and absorbing information.
To quote from
the opening passageChapter 2 of Utilitarianism by JS Mill:“A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence. We may give what explanation we please of this unwillingness; we may attribute it to pride, a name which is given indiscriminately to some of the most and to some of the least estimable feelings of which mankind are capable; we may refer it to the love of liberty and personal independence, as appeal to which was with the Stoics one of the most effective means for the inculcation of it; to the love of power or to the love of excitement, both of which do really enter into and contribute to it; but its most appropriate appellation is a sense of dignity, which all human beings possess in one form or other, and in some, though by no means in exact, proportion to their higher faculties, and which is so essential a part of the happiness of those in whom it is strong that nothing which conflicts with it could be otherwise than momentarily an object of desire to them.”
Utterly impossible to skim, and what a joy to read!
Just to give you a data point from a non-native speaker who likes literature and languages, this quote wasn’t a joy to read for me since it would have taken me a very long time to understand what this is about if I would not have known the context. So I am not sure what you mean by the best linguistic traditions – I think simple language can be elegant too.
It is a more joyful sentence in the context, admittedly.
Simple language can be elegant, of course, and there are excellent writers with a range of different styles and levels of simplicity. I wouldn’t dream of saying that everyone should be striving for 200-word sentences, nor that we should be imitating Victorian-era philosophy, but I do think that the trends of relentless simplifying and trimming that editors and style guides foist upon budding writers have diminished the English language.
But… The most common and advocated style here is exactly skimmable bullet points, while prose is many times frowned upon. And the only richness of language used is jargon. This is the opposite of what you say you want.
Also, like Ada-Maaria, the long quote was hard for me to read as a non-native, and I skipped it. That’s not to say that I think communication should be confined to short sentences and simplified language. Just that thought has to be put into clarity and accessibility as well.