I hadn't actually considered academic writing as an expression of sociopathic manipulation until now, but it explains a lot.
I'm still pissed at being forced to write in a passive voice in university. It's awkward and carries less information, and makes it seem like nobody had any agency, science just kind of happened on its own and you were there to observe it.
I don't know why anyone would prefer something like "An experiment was conducted and it was found that..."
To the much better "We conducted an experiment and found..."
I got taught that rule in my freshman year, but then my thesis advisor told me to stop doing that because "only old people write like that"
So I suppose academia is evolving (however you still aren't allowed to use first person speech)
inhales
Complex 1a was prepared according to well-known synthetic procedures. The reduction potential of the complex was increased due to the nephelauxetic expansion of the occupied FMOs induced by photolytic epimerization of the auxiliary tetrahydrophosphazolidine sulfide ligand to enable a strongly σ-donating dihaptic coordination mode.
translation: we made molecule 1a, we shouldn't need to tell you how, it's obvious, lmao, git gud. the molecule became less likely to gain extra electrons because shining light on it made one of its weird-ass totally-not-bullshit parts wiggle around a bit so that it could bind more strongly to the metal atom through two of its own adjacent atoms, making the metal atom's relevant electrons floofier.
In my first year of uni, I had to write a 20 page paper, so I wrote it about how academic writing sucks.
Cheeky as hell, but I got a good grade, and my teacher liked it
Reminds about GCC wiki.
What does reload do?
Good question. The what is still understandable. Don't ask about the how.
Is there an AcademicDictionary in the vein of Urban Dictionary for all the jargon and filler patterns?
Academic writing can be used as a smoke screen to mask bullshit, or to express ideas concisely. But this can happen in all communication.
Another important function is that communicating in this style shows you know "how thingsa re done". It functions as an implicit screening for wierdos, but comes at the expense of keeping people wit hgood ideas but an unadapted writing style out of the field.
