f Why practitioners resent academic writing

This editorial note focuses on why practitioners complain about academic writing. It starts with how important it is for media and journalism academics to write lively and in a lucid way to be clearly understood by their peers and the people they research. It highlights research about the correlation between the way we think and the way we write. It provides a few samples of what the author sees as poor academic writing. It discusses the impact digital and free and open access publishing is having on academic content and writing. It ends with a few suggestions.