Academics as partisans

Academic writers often strive to convey a completely neutral perspective . . . . Yet that neutrality, when examined closely, turns out to be something of  myth. All academics are partisans, after all, arguing for the validity of our theories, the accuracy of our data, and the strategic importance of our own narrow neck of the research woods.

Helen Sword, Stylish Academic Writing (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2012),  ch. 8