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Artists, activists and impassioned comments | 12 comments

[new] A new discordia feature (Avg. Score: 3.00 / Raters: 2) (#8)
by petertraub on Fri May 9th, 2003 at 10:52:37 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

i propose (in jest) a new discordia feature, much like our beloved autolinker. this one, however, contains a list of some of the most commonly overused terms/jargon used in academic writings. it will highlight those words in bright pink in all stories and comments that use them. to me, many of these terms are the discursive (there's one already) equivalent of dead metaphors, weakened by their overuse. here are just a few off the top of my head (feel free to add to this list):

paradigm
other
body
capital
discourse
fragment
specter
recontextualize
spectacle

i have nothing against academic writing. my concentration was in critical theory as an undergraduate english major, so i wrote a lot of papers that probably greatly overused much of the jargon described above. but i agree with amyalexander that in the wrong hands, they can become a smokescreen used to cloud and/or pretty up mediocre intellectual writing.

#!/usr/bin/peter -w

[ Parent ]

lets do it by saul, 06/20/2003 03:35:06 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)

Artists, activists and impassioned comments | 12 comments

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