Let me count the ways! (I will note that there are of course many shining exceptions to the rule). But on the whole People who go to grad school don’t go because they are gifted writers, and grad school does nothing to cure that. They are socialized from undergrad into a specific form of argument that lays out secondary literature ad nauseum, something “curiously unappreciated” or “oddly missed” or a “third way not yet considered” and then lays out an argument that is impossibly narrow and therefore almost surely boring. Because many academics don’t really, deeply care about their subject matter and so there is a lack of passion and verve in writing because they write in order to be employed. The writing is abstract because there is no real imperative to be clear and concise. And it’s hard to crack a joke when you’re writing for the review of metaphysics. Etc etc
Let me count the ways! (I will note that there are of course many shining exceptions to the rule). But on the whole People who go to grad school don’t go because they are gifted writers, and grad school does nothing to cure that. They are socialized from undergrad into a specific form of argument that lays out secondary literature ad nauseum, something “curiously unappreciated” or “oddly missed” or a “third way not yet considered” and then lays out an argument that is impossibly narrow and therefore almost surely boring. Because many academics don’t really, deeply care about their subject matter and so there is a lack of passion and verve in writing because they write in order to be employed. The writing is abstract because there is no real imperative to be clear and concise. And it’s hard to crack a joke when you’re writing for the review of metaphysics. Etc etc