I stumbled across a page concerning clarity in general in the field of philosophy. Nigel Warburton (author of Thinking from A to Z) answers 5 excellent questions about clarity posed by Stephen Law:

Butterflies and Wheels Article

I think he gives some great advice on writing in philosophy--it's something worth looking through.

"If I find something is said very unclearly, can I really be confident the author doesn't understand it him or herself?"

Only if you are confident that you know what clarity is, and that the lack of understanding is not your own fault.

While I certainly agree that philosophical positions should be written with as much clarity and precision as the subject allows, at the same time there are many subjects not always best expressed or understood by the use of "simple" clarity that makes a point obvious at first reading, or that eliminates the need for careful and thoughtful re-reading.

I'm sympathetic to the author's viewpoint given that I had to struggle through Heidegger. I literally hate reading much of the work stemming from his line of thought, phenomenology, post-structuralism, etc. Just for shits and giggles, I encourage everyone to read a chapter from Heidegger, Hegel or Martin and compare it to the work of, say, Betrand Russell, Quine, or my personal favorite Simone Weil. If you're anything like me, you'll find the latter authors to be a pleasure to read while the former authors require a handful of Advil tablets and a mouth guard so you don't grind away your teeth.

I'm sympathetic to the author's viewpoint given that I had to struggle through Heidegger. I literally hate reading much of the work stemming from his line of thought, phenomenology, post-structuralism, etc. Just for shits and giggles, I encourage everyone to read a chapter from Heidegger, Hegel or Martin Buber and compare it to the work of, say, Betrand Russell, Quine, or my personal favorite Simone Weil. If you're anything like me, you'll find the latter authors to be a pleasure to read while the former authors require a handful of Advil tablets and a mouth guard so you don't grind away your teeth.

thanks it was a useful first article for me to read, and i feel on track with my past writing from humanities courses, long ago now.