Whenever I ask colleagues to describe the academic writing they most enjoy reading, they respond with surprisingly consistent answers, whatever their disciplinary backgrounds. Stylish academic writers, they typically tell me, are those who…
:
• express complex ideas clearly and succinctly;
• write with originality, imagination and creative flair;
• engage and hold their reader’s attention through relevant examples and anecdotes;
• convey a sense of energy, intellectual commitment and even passion;
• produce elegant, carefully crafted sentences, using language appropriate to the audience,
discipline and subject matter;
• tell a story;
• provide their readers with aesthetic and/or intellectual pleasure;
• avoid jargon, except where specialised terminology is essential to the argument.
Helen Sword, "Academic Style" MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review 3 (December 2008).