The writer for Learning Tools has it spot on. Although I of course make sweeping generalisations in my language on this topic, I do it with the assumption that the reader knows I don’t mean every academic. Indeed, many academic pieces are a joy to read. Pinker’s writing, for example, while sometimes dry and gruelling, is never pretentious or overly obscure. The big difference I see is often that natural science texts are more straightforward than humanities/social sciences (jargon notwithstanding).