That culture should be available to all is one of the most repeated phrases in history, but there are a large number of academics who seem determined that this is not the case. Invaded by a passive-aggressive spirit, perhaps due to the obligation they have to publish and disseminate their findings and research, they decide to write their texts in such a way that there is not a living soul that understands them. Well, to be fair, it must be said that there is someone who understands them: other academics from the same branch. Among them they have managed to create a kind of own code and have forgotten to write for others.
Any student of degree or diploma will have given several times with academic articles of this type and will know what we are referring to without any doubt, but if it is your first time, calm, this leaves (and if you do not ask a graduate in Straight).
Even so, our first encounter with one of those texts is … at best, shocking and quite discouraging, but we are here to help, do not despair.
See little by little
We probably do not realize that we are dealing with an incomprehensible text until we have a few pages read. It’s normal: between the summary, the keywords and the introduction (where they still maintain a certain didactic spirit), you, as a confident student, have already activated the automatic reading mode and you are not realizing that, in reality, you are not learning anything.
It is then, when we become aware that we are reading a kind of list of very long words without apparent connection, when the first slap of reality arrives. What? We wonder perplexed as we go back in the text trying to find the exact point where some innocent pages went from being an interesting academic study to become some kind of spell written in the different language.
Well, do not let the panic stop you, you just have to start again and divide the text into smaller pieces. Go paragraph by paragraph and translate it into mundane Spanish. Thus, in the following readings, it will be enough to read what you have written as a summary.
Have a Dictionary at hand
A dictionary (which will be easy to find) and consult the unknown words or you can also visit a help service like University essay help UK to get further assistance. It is important that you do this because you will expand your vocabulary and, in addition, you will acquire terminology of your branch that you can later release in your work to show off and it will be useful to understand more incomprehensible academic texts (which will be).
Read in loud voice
Most of the time, the problem of incomprehensible academic texts is not the words we do not know, but the convoluted wording they have. To be fair, we must understand that we are not all good writers and it is likely that we are reading an academic study of someone with a vast knowledge in Theoretical Physics, but with a minus two in writing. To better understand what this genius wants to explain to us, it helps a lot to read aloud, because this way, in addition to using our reading comprehension, we will also put our listening comprehension to work and, as you already know, the union is strength.
Question and debate
Faced with an incomprehensible academic text it is normal that we have moments of slump. Moments in which we seriously consider leaving the race, moments in which we doubt our intellectual capacity and moments in which we think that we will never get our title. Do not despair, are the typical side effects of trying to study and learn a text that we do not even understand. The good news is that we are not alone: dozens of colleagues are going through the same thing as we do, so take advantage and create a WhatsApp group to ask questions that you can solve among all, discuss the meaning of a paragraph or simply to find support, understanding and discard what to leave the race.
Practice makes perfect
In the first year of the course, most of the compulsory class readings seem incomprehensible texts, but, just like the pharmacist is able to decipher without problems what he puts in that antibiotic recipe that looks like a hieroglyph made by an Egyptian with Tembleque, with time and effort, you can decipher the strange code of academics. People finish their careers and get graduated and, although it may seem difficult at first, it is not so hard. You just have to get the hang of it. The trick is not to despair, to take it with philosophy and to dedicate time. When you are in the last years, it will be a piece of cake, but beware, however much you get used to reading incomprehensible texts, it is important that you make an effort not to end up writing the same. (That everything bad sticks). The diffusion of culture is vital for society to function. When you graduate and publish your own findings, remember that good writing is as important as good content. Democratize your texts and do not write only for your colleagues, a good communicator knows how to reach everyone.
