"Bad academic writing avoids concrete (literally solid or coalesced) words and phrases as assiduously as it avoids active voice, and for the same reason: it seeks to convey an impression of scientific precision, of painfully acquired learning and scholarship, of Olympian detachment from the commonplace facts of everyday life. It prefers phenomena to things or events, socialization to growing up, orientation to position or location. Abstractions are often indispenable, of course (as are forms of to be). Sipped in small amounts, they may even have a slightly intoxicating effect, not inconsistent with verbal clarity. Over-indulgence, however, leads to slurred speech and eventually destroys brain cells." Christopher Lasch - Plain Style: A Guide to Written English, Characteristics of Bad Writing, Abstract Language
"In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are." CS Lewis - Experiment in Criticism