So true.
"In ordinary life, when a listener cannot understand what someone has said, this is the usual:
LISTENER: I cannot understand what you are saying
SPEAKER: Let me try to say it more clearly.
But in scholarly writing in the late 20th century, other rules apply. This is the implicit change:
READER: I cannot understand what you are saying.
ACADEMIC WRITER: Too bad. The problem is that you are an unsophisticated and untrained reader. If you were smarter, you would understand me."
-Historian Patricia Limerick
LISTENER: I cannot understand what you are saying
SPEAKER: Let me try to say it more clearly.
But in scholarly writing in the late 20th century, other rules apply. This is the implicit change:
READER: I cannot understand what you are saying.
ACADEMIC WRITER: Too bad. The problem is that you are an unsophisticated and untrained reader. If you were smarter, you would understand me."
-Historian Patricia Limerick