I couldn't agree with you more, Jan! English can be infuriatingly obscure anyway as the meaning of even ordinary words can vary from region to region and country to country. My belief is that many "writers" invent words to have a specific meaning, but these unintelligible, new words then obscure the meaning seemingly given to them. Much of this too, I believe, is done to impress (hah!) the readers of their erudite knowledge and thus imply others (or at any rate my) lack of knowledge and fancy language.
I taught photography to 17~18 year olds for several years, including critical writing on their and celebrated photographers' work. In doing so I tried always to avoid obscure language and kept it very largely to simple, plain English. I did use some technical language for Critical Analysis - in particular Barthes' intriguing words Studium and Punctum.
In terms of visual analysis I always advised students to avoid central placement of the principal image, and encouraged them to try variations and to choose the one which seemed best to them. To this end, the "rule" of thirds and "Golden Mean" helped but not dogmatically.
Oh well, I'm retired so I don't have to worry about it or exam grades or the like any more!
Howard
