They are stylish in their choice of cars (Prius) and coffee, and more often than not, in their sartorial selections, but can they write with the grace, verve, and style of a Joan Didion (not a Marilyn Robinson, a self-confessed disdainer of the cult of articulacy)?
Harvard cognitive scientist and popular science writer, Steven Pinker asks this question in a recent criticism of obtuse writing in academia.
The big steal I got out of Pinker's essay is a reference to a book:
Sword invented the term "zombie nouns" in her funny critique of excessive nominalizations in academic prose.
I intend to use Sword's book on stylish academic prose as a companion piece of the other book on style I adore:
I'd need to stick this one into my harem of books on style and academic prose too!
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