Books: Note Worthy

A HANDBOOK FOR SCHOLARS

by Mary-Claire van Leunen

Knopf; 354 pages; $12.95 hardcover, $5.95 paperback

Graduate schools do not profess to train people to write at the greatest possible length for the smallest possible number. But they might as well take credit for the job. Thanks to a number of factors,ยน the typical scholarly article is now a footnote-clotted monstrosity comprehensible only to the few friends, enemies and students who already know what is on the author's mind. Everybody talks about the academic smog; Mary-Claire van Leunen, a writer and editor, has done something...

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