: Re: How should I respond to a supervisor/editor who thinks my technical writing is "too conversational?" My team and I are drafting a technical report to summarize the methods and results of a pilot

@Samaraweera193

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How should you respond? Take a careful and critical look at your own writing, and - in effect - do as your supervisor has suggested.

We all get attached to our own writing, word choice, phrases, and so on. Writers (novelists) are often given the advice to root their favourite, overused phrases and kill them off. As far as academic/technical writing is concerned, the responsibility lies with the author to make it understandable to the reader, and I agree entirely that clear and concise language is to be preferred. But that doesn't mean that the style of writing should be "chatty" or "informal".

To be honest, you sound too wedded to your own writing style; when comments like this come back from a future reviewer of your work - whether that's academic papers, or feedback from the people who read the report - you simply cannot argue with them that they are wrong and you are right. You have to be willing to bend, and to learn from the input of supervisors, editors, reviewers and so forth.

"Too informal" is how - in my experience - I would describe most writing from most undergraduate and graduate students (that, or overly grandiose). Learning to write well takes time, it takes feedback, and it takes humility. If you revise as suggested you are likely to end up with a more solid piece of work - this is my my experience from both sides of this scenario.

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