What I found most interesting p.31-52

Have you ever read something so ponderous and overbearing you think to yourself, "What kind of lame a-hole wrote this garbage -- and why do I have to make sense of it??" Well, I can tell you that, after many years of education, there are those people who know they're smart and have something worthwhile to say, and there are those who know they have nothing to add and therefore must make themselves sound important by bloviating about, oh, sociology, let's say. This kind of thing happens all the time in academia, especially in folks just starting out in a given discipline. IE refers to this problem as "academic wordiness disease" and a more apt term I never did see. I try really hard to emphasize to my students that what they have to say is really worthwhile -- really! -- and they don't have to make their prose "sound more academic" or more mature by throwing in a bunch of polysyllabic jargon or big words. Simple question to ask yourself: why utilize when you can simply use? I like to keep this little statement in mind as I write: "Think about what you mean and your writing is likely to be clear and natural; think about how you sound and you are likely to start adding words to 'sound more educated'" (39).

For the analysis assignment this chapter is great, because it clues you in to what you're looking for in a good scientific report. Especially pp. 42-50 -- these pages provide an excellent template, a whole range of things that most scientific reports ought to contain. You ought to be seeing these journal articles in a whole new light after reading through this chapter and then looking at your article. I can't wait to see what other people found enlightening, interesting or awful about this reading.