Learn to spell wrong. How to Succeed in Social Sciences

Abstract

The title of the book I review here, Learn to Write Wrong. How to Succeed in Social Sciences, may seem like a mockery to those who take their work more seriously. Some more cheeky, but more successful, will trust its satirical and ironic tone. However, there may be some more, the more cynical, who will take the book as an excellent manual for an academic career. The latter would further disappoint Michael Billig, an English psychologist at Loughborough University who has devoted much of his work to discursive psychology. From the title Billig tells us what is the problem that worries him. Billig elaborates a scathing critique of the writing style of the common social scientists and defends that it is not a trivial question to ask oneself about the way we write.