[pjungwir]

In college I helped a lot of people write papers, and almost always they were trying to "sound academic", and the sentences were so complex they didn't even parse. So I'd ask, "What does this mean?", and whatever they said, I'd reply, "Write that down!" Basically they were trying too hard. It reminds me of the common advice to edit your work by reading it out loud.

If you are a great writer your prose might be better than speech, but I think for most of us, writing for non-literary goals, writing should approach common but correct speech. Good writing has the illusion (but not the reality) of being conversational.

[CaptSpify]

To be fair, I think schools encourage this sort of behavior. I've had countless "$x number of words/pages, minimum" writing assignments. Eventually, you start to be convinced that every teacher wants it that way.

[dragonwriter]

> I've had countless "$x number of words/pages, minimum" writing assignments.

My better professors had, rather than just minimums, either ranges or maximums.

[CaptSpify]

IME, that is uncommon. Most have had minimum. YMMV of course

[rdancer]

The more you write, the better you get. Your first ten thousand pages are going to be shit anyway, so better get them out of your system before you start publishing. For the sake of your editor, if not for the sake of your readers.

[jaskerr]

One of my favorite professors assigned papers with maximums. The maximum was a hard stop. If your paper was longer, she tore off the overage and graded the paper as it was.

I quickly learned to be concise.