Dear Professor . . .

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Your Life’s Work Sucks

“Harvard’s Steven Pinker . . . authored an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education in which he used adjectives like ‘turgid, soggy, wooden, bloated, clumsy, obscure, unpleasant to read, and impossible to understand’ to describe academic writing. In an email, Pinker told me that the reaction to his article ‘has been completely positive.’” 

—Victoria Clayton, writer, “The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing: A new movement strivesfor simplicity,” The Atlantic, October 26, 2015 

• Editorial Comment: Reviewer #2, however, dismissed Pinker’s argument as “sophomoric, pedestrian, oompa-loompish and unsupported by his own null hypothesis.” Be like that.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Art Alley















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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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