Finding elegant writing in some interesting places 
Years ago, I read and thoroughly enjoyed William Zinsser’s book Writing to Learn, which illustrated some wonderful pieces of writing from a variety of disciplines. But for the most part, academic writing is very dry and dull. At least I’ve found that to be true.
So, imagine my surprise when I came across a physics paper by a researcher named Garrett Lisi titled “An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything.” I admit that I don’t understand much of the mathematics in the paper, but I do know good writing. And this paper is elegantly written. The first paragraph sets the tone:
We exist in a universe described by mathematics. But which math? Although it is interesting to consider that the universe may be the physical instantiation of all mathematics, there is a classic principle for restricting the possibilities: The mathematics of the universe should be beautiful. A successful description of nature should be a concise, elegant, unified mathematical structure consistent with experience.
If only more academic writing could be like that.
If you’re interested, you can read the paper here (it’s a PDF).
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This reminds me of a history class I took in college. After years of hearing high school teachers drone on and on about the events of the distant past, I finally got a professor that told history as the story it really is. I find the same is true with non-fiction writing. If you’re lucky, you come across an author who knows how share information in an engaging manner.
-Melissa Donovan Writing FORWARD