The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities by Eric Hayot

The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities Reviews

• 
  Joe

  Several friends and colleagues recommended this book to me, so I was surprised by how little I enjoyed it. Part of the problem has to do with the kind of writing Hayot advocates—which is the echt academic genre of cultural theory. Few of his examples of strong prose strike me as compelling. (There's even an odd moment when Frederic Jameson is held up as an avatar of style.)
  
  But his advice about writing is also often troubling. For instance, Hayot takes the valid insight that the interest of critical prose tends to hinge on the ability of the writer to move fluidly between the general and particular, ideas and examples, and reduces it to a formula, "The Uneven U", which tells writers exactly how to structure the levels of abstraction in a paragraph.
  
  Even more, though, I disliked the tone of the book. When trying to understand why people don't stick to regular schedules for writing, Hayot seems only able to imagine excuses like "cleaning the house or doing the dishes", or, heaven forfend, a devotion to teaching—which he describes variously as a form of "virtuous procrastination", "compensation", and a task "easier than writing" (29-30). He comes off, that is, as someone who's never had to worry about anything more urgent than the advancement of his career.
• 
  Tia

  I usually find books about writing to be full of platitudes (I also struggle more with other genres; the academic mode feels weirdly natural to me), but this book is really charming, often quite specific, and probably quite useful.
• 
  Cat

  I'm teaching this book in my introduction to Graduate Studies book and its emphasis on some of the toughest structural and stylistic challenges of scholarly writing is offset with its lightness of touch, Hayot's wit and frankness. He begins the book with generative writing strategies--reminiscent of
  Professors as Writers or
  How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing, and his emphasis on habit-building was generous and practical. I also particularly liked his articulation of writing-as-thinking (rather than writing as the fleshing out of a predetermined outline), the importance of unstinting drafting (have to have material before you can cut from it), and the transformative quality of revision (not just cosmetic but shaping). I found myself constantly writing stars and smiley faces in the margins of his prose, and he chooses engaging, complex examples of literary and cultural studies scholarship to unpack.
  
  The second half of the book is self-confessedly more scattershot, as Hayot moves through a number of stylistic tics that he likes or doesn't like and explains why. This felt less cohesive and powerful for me than the first half of the book, which focused on writing experientially and structurally. Hayot's diagramming of the "uneven U" made me think of my own composition process and paragraph structure in a new way. I also like the manifesto quality of the very opening of the book, where he talks about how unfortunate it is that institutions overlook writing training for graduate students.
  
  Unlike many books or articles about scholarly writing, the gusto and humor with which Hayot wrote his own book made me want to sit down and write rather than cower in the corner.
• 
  Derek Frasure

  Great book for graduate students or professionals in the humanities. There are a couple things readers will inevitably disagree with, as much of this is subjective. Hayot makes strong cases for all his strategies. I found this book very clarifying and it helped me psychologically move past a stuck place in my dissertation writing.
• 
  Merry

  Read for work.
  
  Solid and analytical. (Longer review to follow?)
• 
  Kelly W.

  I bought this book when I began writing my dissertation, and it was an incredibly important resource for learning how to craft an academic text that was, frankly, very intimidating. There wasn’t a lot of institutional instruction on how to write at the graduate level at my school, so Hayot’s book came in handy when trying to find my way as a writer in the humanities. I especially found the chapter on “the uneven U” to be helpful, as my biggest problem as a younger student was crafting paragraphs that built on one another and made substantial points without sounding like a list of random ideas.
  
  Hayot’s book is easy to read, both because his prose is straightforward and practical, and because each chapter is short and to-the-point. I also liked that many chapters had diagrams or tables to help illustrate Hayot’s point visually, and information on any particular subject is easy to find, thanks to the book’s organization. I also enjoyed his prose, as he inserts some fun quips into his discussion of very serious topics.
  
  If there’s any drawback to this book, it’s that the “uneven U” (which is simultaneously the part I found most helpful) is a bit hard to implement, if you’re not sure how this strategy works. There are also some examples of style advice which some readers may disagree with. But overall, I found it immensely helpful as a younger grad, and I think it is a good resource for those looking to improve their academic work. It might not be very useful for those writing for a scientific or popular audience, as the title specifies that it’s for graduate students in the humanities, but I do think those with an interest in academic writing could find it thought-provoking nonetheless.
• 
  Alyssa

  This book is quite illuminating to a new grad student like me. I love the way Hayot describes some things, such as showing only the tip of your ice burg, or avoid giving your reader all of your background info and research. Using that advice really helped me decide what was important and what wasn't important in my papers for class.
  
  I still struggle with the uneven U, because I can totally tell a 5 from a 1, but the middle numbers sort of jumble together for me, no matter how many times I reread that section. It trips me up that a 4 in one paragraph might function as a 2 or a 3 in another.
  
  I won't say I completely have this book's message down; the conference paper I'm currently writing proves that isn't yet the case. However, I feel like a more confident graduate student writer after having studied this book.
• 
  Daniel

  Hayot means well, but this book left a bad taste in my mouth. There were some helpful comments, like when he says that "the work you do in your first years after starting graduate school... [will] determine, in almost every case, the first decade or so of your life as a publishing scholar" (119). His ideas on writing as process were also very useful. But I found his comments on style, which occupy roughly 2/3 of the book, commonsensical and even trite oftentimes. I think he's a mediocre stylist & an awkward humorist, and I often felt as though he wasn't qualified to advise his readers on matters of style. Also, he seems to have a knack for picking tedious & unnecessarily long passages to illustrate his points.
• 
  Jennifer

  Sometimes I wanted more examples or an extended discussion, other times I found the exames and commentary to be too lengthy, but on the whole, it was helpful, particularly the section on the uneven-U structure.
• 
  Kathleen Quaintance

  UPDATE: i read it closer this morn and I don't agree with the practical advice re writing ("don't use teaching or childcare as an excuse to not write" is one of the strongest assertions in the book, lol) and its emphasis on structure and discipline and "habit-building" simply does not work for people with ADHD. Some of the advice on style, structure, etc. was v helpful but the "how to get your butt in the seat and write" advice I think fell predictably short, bc diff things work for diff people. additionally he doesn't specify what it is that you are doing when you set yourself "two pages per day" reccomendation - are you writing two pages of an article, or two pages of thoughts, or research notes? like the actual production of an article I feel begins primarily with research, preparation, testing ideas, fiddling with things and then you make the structure and then you write. So how are you meant to "write two pages a day" when you're still doing the first phase - which takes a generous amount of time?? how do we think about the work that happens before or in the midst of the writing and how can we integrate it more into our writing practice (taking notes about an archival experience, freewriting, thinking journals, etc.) so that this impetus to produce 2 actual finished pages of academic work a day is more possible? It takes a lot of work to get to the phase where you are actually able to write - and for me it can't begin til I'm done with the structure and the research. He suggests you should be able to write in medias res and can come up with your ideas as you go/impose structure later. But what might doing that actually LOOK LIKE? What exactly is on the two pages!???
  ..........
  Original review from yesterday: "A genuinely helpful book for me, because I've never had specific academic writing instruction as such. Very, very useful if you are writing academic work in the humanities. You can take or leave some of his advice but considering it is helpful - I always want to know top tips and tricks and whether or not I use them depends on the rhythm I'm in. If it's a good rhythm, I throw caution to the wind. If it's nonexistent, and I feel stuck, despondent, etc; I turn to Hayot's ideas to give me a structure for how I'm going to manage things!! I don't even think we agree ideologically, but it's useful nonetheless to have some strategies and ways of thinking about writing, which is unfortunately as I am now learning, more difficult than simply mimicking the style of the things you read and liked."
• 
  Elizabeth

  Although I get that the book has some idiosyncrasies, I was very happy to come across it toward the end of my graduate career. I wish I had found it earlier. Unlike some of the other (very useful) academic writing books that are focused on other parts of writing (studies about productivity in How to Write a Lot, a specific process for being productive in Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks), this one was the most encouraging for me personally. I AM the person who worries about the dishes when I sit down to write. I AM the person who over-prepares for teaching as procrastination for writing.
  
  "I am terrified - seriously terrified - of academic writing" (17).
  
  "The ultimate truth about graduate school is that successful academics are not always the smartest ones in their cohort. They're the ones who manage that anxiety well, who learn to live with their fears and continue, despite everything, to write" (18).
  
  Thank you! Here are some specific elements that I found useful: advice for what to do when you're stuck; advice for how to handle fear; things that writers know instinctively but that Hayot has laid out explicitly, like being aware of the need for surprise; a brief explanation about why chapters are longer than articles; the chapter on introductions; the chapter on transitions; the chapter on ending well!; and more.
  
  I also appreciated Chapter 12, "Don't Say It All Early." This has always been my instinct, but it seems the trend is to give away the whole argument right away (making reading the rest incredibly tedious).
  
  I didn't find the author's persona to be as annoying as some other people did. For me, this was a very valuable book.
• 
  Grace

  As an undergraduate student, The Elements of Academic Style feels like a one-on-one office hour with the cool English professor who is beyond enthusiastic to share their tips and tricks on succeeding as a writer—and who is so enthusiastic, that you can’t help but sit there and listen patiently as they ramble on about topics that don’t quite concern you yet, but you know one day they might.
  
  In a conversational-style, The Elements of Academic Style provides advice on how to write, how to develop writing habits, how to approach writing in your academic career, and how to cater to the institutional and national context of academia. This kind of scaffolding for writing is not only helpful in practicality, but also in simply encouraging writers from all fields of work.
  
  My personal favourite concept drawn upon in this book was the Uneven-U idea, a rhetorical strategy already unconsciously present in the most compelling writing. What is particularly impressive is that Eric Hayot was able to draw out the applicability of the Uneven-U structure as a scalable model for any unit of argumentative prose, whether it be a paragraph, an essay, or a full-on book.
  
  Other aspects of writing that were touched on, which are seemingly intuitive, yet, rarely spoken about, include word choice (and tips on how to extend your conceptual and verbal vocab), and the use of parentheticals, long dashes, pronouns, rhetorical questions, and rhythm. We encounter these rhetorical strategies on the daily, but not many people have taken the time to break down the core elements that play into excellent writing. As George Orwell notes, “the best books are those that tell you what you know already”.
• 
  talah

  had to only read a chapter of this for class but it was so good i had to keep going. i hav no hope, at all, in what academic writing can *do* for the world in terms of like. radical, fundamental change but aside from that, this text helped me realize how misplaced and unfounded my guilt + shame over not always working on my MRP really is. i knew this, logically, because im constantly reminding myself that constantly grinding is a capitalistic attitude that i don’t want to participate in.
  
  grad students are just never taught how to write something over months/years, re-working and evolving it - my whole BA degree has been invested in teaching me how to do seminar papers, not something long-term like an MRP or a dissertation.
  
  hayot’s text not only helps to acknowledge and dispel the shame/guilt around not always writing or not knowing how to write, but it also offers some really helpful tools on how to actually write the damn thing.
• 
  Kari

  Full disclosure: I adore books about writing. I don't find Hayot's minute analysis of the writing process here to be helpful, though. Much of his advice seems to consist of the kinds of strategies that one develops naturally as one reads and writes more. Does breaking everything down really help understand what makes good writing good? In some cases, yes; but in this case, I don't think so. Hayot's many examples can also be difficult to follow, being lifted from knotty texts, and end up amounting to an equivalent of "these are a few of my faaaaavorite things..."
• 
  Jeri

  Scholars should look at this book as an example to position themselves toward the rest of the world. There are suggestions and readings on the craft of writing that I do not fully understand or necessarily agree with. Yet that does not prevent me from gaining support, guidance, and more importantly a sense of academic collectivity from Eric Hayot's writing.
• 
  Snow

  I mean the first chapter was waste of time to me. Yes, it’s important to know how to build its own habit, but I was hopping to get more writing info. Also his humor was kinda too sarcastic which wasn’t my type.
• 
  Emily

  I had to read this book for one of my classes and it was fine. I'm not mad that I read it, but I'm not really happy that I read it either. I did learn a bit about how to better structure my writing, but I'm not really a fan of writing theory in itself.
• 
  Zoe Phillips

  I found the topics on habit forming and understanding the different pieces of writing interesting. The Uneven-U is a helpful concept. Often went beyond what was useful for me.
• 
  Jonathan Hiskes

  This how-to on scholarly writing is quite interestingly for non-scholarly writing.
• 
  Genevieve Brassard

  Very helpful and practical and motivational, all things I need to fight my procrastinating tendencies...
• 
  Oumeima

  Very useful. Especially for post-graduate students.
• 
  Carol Tilley

  3.5
• 
  Natasha

  this book comforted me so much even though I am terrified of academia
• 
  Jennifer DuBose

  Nice refresher - I haven’t been in academia since 2013, so this was a nice reminder for how to think and write and create compelling arguments at the graduate level.
• 
  Marnie Cannon

  Encouraging read about the ins and outs of writing and the writing process as a PhD student. Definitely something to keep and come back to in different moments of life.
• 
  Roy Kenagy

  AAA KINDLE
  
  
• 
  Mathuri

  i had to read it for school but a great book on writing tbh - shoutout to the uneven u :D
• 
  Maria

  3.5
• 
  kat

  what does the book cover mean