There are several types of academic writers, for sure. Some are amazingly clear in their writing. Those people are fantastic, and really do help to advance th

There are several types of academic writers, for sure. Some are amazingly clear in their writing. Those people are fantastic, and really do help to advance the spread of new ideas. But some (many) use long words and convoluted sentences, seemingly for no reason other than to make their reader feel less intelligent. I know someone in the latter category; while he's a very bright guy, I haven't the foggiest idea what he's saying in any of his papers. Which does indeed demonstrate that a PhD doesn't necessarily make you a great writer. I had been writing professionally for a decade before I started my PhD, and this had far more to do with my clarity of writing than any feedback I got in grad school. And of course, don't forget the gibberish, automatically generated papers that were accepted: http://www.ibtimes.com/fake-research-papers-how-did-more-120-gibberish-computer-generated-studies-get-published-1558725 http://www.ibtimes.com/fake-research-papers-how-did-more-120...