Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 4:29:12-4:31:05

When academic language becomes a barrier

Academic English often relies on passive and discipline-specific phrasing, creating conversations in which experts and the public use the same words but mean different things.

Academic WritingHistorical MethodPublic HistoryResearch SkillsScience Communication
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Question

How large is the gap between academic English and everyday English?

Short answer

It can be substantial because academic phrasing is passive and discipline-specific, so scholars must translate concepts rather than assume shared terminology.

Notes

The phrase 'person in the street' avoids dividing audiences into academic and common people. A real language gap still exists because academic prose can be more passive, coded and constrained by disciplinary expectations. Writing that follows a natural speaking voice can conflict with journal conventions. The deeper danger appears when specialists and non-specialists believe they are discussing the same subject while their terminology points to different concepts. Academics traditionally help translate between institutions, industry, government and the public, but that role fails when academia develops a language and constituency isolated from all the others.