The Oppositeness of Much Writing and Good Writing in Knowledge Production: A Critical Study

One of the most famous stereotypes in academic circles is the idea that writing a lot is in sharp contrast to good writing. So, to be a good writer, we should avoid writing much. This cliché is so powerful that virtually nobody has tried to challenge it. In this article, the writer has attempted to question this belief and to analyze it critically. To achieve this end, he has articulated and reported five reasons in defense of this idea. Then he has tried to show insufficiency of them. At the end, referring to Lotka's Law, the writer has concluded that writing a lot, but at the same time well-structured and according to all grammatical rules, is the first and prime condition for knowledge production. In fact, there are mostly a few people who constitute the core of scientific disciplines, who were usually prolific writers and enriched the literature of their subjects through prolific writing, such as Aristotle, Farabi, Avicenna, Aquinas, Walton, and Rescher.