George Orwell's "Why I write" is the kind of text perfectly tailor-made to reconsider what we believe an academic text is. We are taugth to use only a few rules that give an accurate tone to our writing, this is we are used to objectivity. Orwell's essay does not break established paradigms, but it shows a text can be both academic and personal.
The essay has the requested structure to be academic:
Organisation: It has a clear introduction, body and conclusion. The arguments are clear and supported with examples.
Relevance: All its arguments address to the topic; it does not have any information that may take out Orwell from the subject.
Coherence and Cohesion: It has a sense and a structure.
There is a very strong objection about this text: Orwell's use of language. It is truth that words like "humbug" or "stuff" MAY NOT seem appropriate for an academic text but it is not totally forbidden; plus you have to convince your audience, so it implies that some rules must be skipped.
I think "Why I write" is a personal essay but also an academic one and we should not let some rules confuse us. Remember rules are to be broken.
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