---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1993 10:41:26 EDT
From: Susan Davis <UNLSDB%UBVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject: Literary mediocrity

In the April 21 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education is a reprint
of an editorial that appeared in the March 20 issue of the New Scientist.
Bernard Dixon, editor of Medical Science Research, talks about the stiff
and stilted language of most scientific articles.  THe headline in the
Chronicle quotes "What can make scientific papers extremely heavy going
is the daunting and lifeless quality of their prose."  But the quote I
find most interesting is:

"Even in these straitened times, when publishers need to attract and retain
subscribers more than ever before, the most striking impression one gains
from many journals (though not nowadays from leaders such as NATURE and
SCIENCE) is of their literary mediocrity."

Susan Davis/Head, Periodicals
University at Buffalo