Easy-to-Read

I am a doctoral student in a field within the humanities and as such, I have to read theory. My peeve is that a lot of theory seems to be purposely written in a dense, confusing style. Why can’t people write clearly? My theory about that is that either people think they sound smarter when they use big words or complex concepts or that they are trying to hide the fact that they actually have nothing to say. I’ve been praised for my simple-to-understand style, although I was also warned that people may be so taken aback by it that they may assume I’m not intelligent or well-spoken. What a strange state of affairs it is when big words are thought to equal big ideas, when often it is quite the opposite.
--Curly