Can't read it

My struggle with Polish written texts continues: articles in Wprost have whole paragraphs in them which I simply do not understand. Some I do not understand because I do not understand the context – “the what has gone before”. Stories in American newspapers address this issue by summarizing the what has gone before in paragraph two; but Polish press articles summarize nothing, every reader is supposed to be au courant all the time, which, of course, as a foreigner I am not. But the lack of background isn’t the only problem: some paragraphs, even those introducing entirely new material, are completely intransparent; or their relationship to the surrounding text isn’t clear (why is this here, the reader asks himself); and, invariably, the whole article is disorganized: different paragraphs, disjointed facts are just thrown together without any effort at any apparent order. Such articles make the impression of being raw material, the writer’s notes to himself before he begins to write the final draft. Good, one wants to say, impressive research, now – write it up for Chrissake!

OECD conducts annually studies of literacy – by giving people typical texts to read and seeing how well they understand them; Poles regularly place poorly in this test, below Romania and Turkey, and, disconcertingly to Poles who think themselves educated, far below Americans. Poles dismiss this result: can’t possibly be true, they say, we are not stupid! But the methodology is solid and the results the same, year in and year out. Perhaps because Poles don’t know how to read; but -- in my opinion far more likely -- because the writers of the texts (which the Polish subjects are ordered to read and understand) don’t know how to write.

What is Polish for Strunk and White?