Clear is Kind

It’s been nearly two years since I started my PhD program, and I have spent most of my time reading the works of those who came before me. I fairly enjoy reading difficult texts. I’ve been the kind of person who, as a child, would read a dictionary for fun, carry it along to decode complex verses in unabridged versions of Shakespearean plays and 18th-century novels. But somehow, despite all that training, I still find academic papers to be the toughest lot I have ever tackled.

Having spent one year navigating through corporate jargon at work, I really thought academia would be different. Silly me! At first, I believed it was my lack of conceptual clarity that caused these problems around comprehension. But as time went by, I realised, sometimes it’s really not the reader’s fault!

First, I had to figure out how to get through pesky publisher paywalls. Then I realised, it is better to take an open-access publishing as the positionality for my work than struggle senselessly with capitalism. I am guilty of publishing in said high-indexed journals, but at least my supervisor believes in the idea of immediately uploading the author copy to ResearchGate.

Now, onto the main concern… What is with academic writers and using unnecessary embellishments and buzzwords? Is it an attempt at meeting journal word limits or just unsaid requirements to get published? Can’t we say the same things simply? Do we want people to understand our work or no?

Somehow, I find older articles to be clearer and robust. But then I am slapped back with reviewer comments on the temporal relevance of my literature review section. I cannot even begin to talk about the AI-generated journal articles I have come across. Where is the writer's ambiguity I love and enjoy? Randomly stringed sentences that feel real, authentic and an honest attempt at explaining what went right and what went wrong in the study.

I am slowly progressing towards finalising the methodology for my study. It’s been a real task trying to find research that goes beyond the good-old mixed methodology and its ten-thousand remixes. Not that I am in any way against it. Who knows, maybe I will also fall into that never-ending pit.

I just wish in all this, when it comes time for me to tell my story, I am able to keep it clear and simple. Because clear is kind!