Off the Page: A Columbia University Press Podcast

Eric Hayot, “The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities” (Columbia University Press, 2014)

Nov 13, 2014

Eric Hayot, humanities scholar and author of The Elements of Academic Style, offers compact, practical thinking on scholarly craft. He discusses writing as a lived practice, why compassion matters for writers, the Uneven-U structure for building argument, and strategies for turning dissertations into books. Short, candid takes on pedagogy, fear, and the habits that make academic writing possible.

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INSIGHT

Compassionate Defense Of Complex Academic Writing

Eric Hayot rejects hostile critiques that treat academic prose as mere obfuscation and defends complexity as valuable.
He frames writing advice from compassion for writers' fear and ambition, not as moralizing corrections.

INSIGHT

Fear As A Productive Companion

Hayot reframes fear as a rational companion tied to ambition rather than an enemy to eliminate.
He urges writers to accept fear, join communities, and let it motivate sustained practice.

INSIGHT

Graduate Training Creates Bad Writing Muscle Memory

Graduate training often instills an embodied, last-minute seminar-paper habit that mismatches faculty writing practices.
Hayot argues departments must restructure pedagogy to teach the actual habits of scholarly writing.

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“This is a book that wants you to surpass and destroy it.”

Eric Hayot‘s new book has the potential to transform how we teach and practice academic writing, and it invites the kind of reading and engagement that makes such a transformation possible. The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Columbia University Press, 2014) is a style guide geared specifically toward academic writers in the humanities, paying special attention to the field of literary and cultural theory but applying equally well across humanistic disciplines. At turns funny, moving, and brilliant – not always qualities we associate with writing style guides – Hayot’s book treats writing as a process that encompasses “behavioral, emotional, & institutional parameters.” The first section of the book treats writing as a form of life, addressing the contexts and habits of the writer and the institutional contexts in which we teach and write. It also offers some strategies for getting writing done in the course of the typically crazy, packed life of the academic writer, and includes some great advice for thinking about the relationship between a dissertation and a book. The second section addresses strategies of academic writing, introducing the scalable “Uneven-U” model for conceptualizing the structure of paragraphs, essays, and beyond. It also includes some helpful ways to understand and craft openings and closings, and reminds us how important it is to keep the experience of our readers in mind as we write. The third section offers great advice on some of the elemental tactics of writing practice, including citation, sentence rhythm, and much more. The final section suggests a way to think about the writing in terms of “becoming”: a writer, a written work, a form of life.

The Elements of Academic Style is a book well worth reading and rereading. I’ve already been using it in my teaching and writing, and it’s a fitting work to inaugurate the New Books Network Seminar!