"too conversational"

A comment that I find writing a lot on the REM 100 term papers that I correct is, "too conversational". This basically translates into, "you write like you talk, and you talk like an idiot". I believe that most high school English teachers teach their students that writing like you speak is wrong, because what you are saying. and ultimately writing, is a lot of "um", "like you know", and "I feel like..." 's. Writing this way is wrong because it invokes the sense of rambling, which in your term paper writing equates to wasting words or filling up space because you either don't know what to say or don't have the training to say it properly. So I believe my writing the comment, "too conversational" is usually justified.

Peering beyond the prospect of rambling, I recently ran across a blog that stated, "if you want people to learn and remember what you write, say it conversationally." That is to say, when you want people to learn what you are reading you should be writing informally, or conversationally. The blog goes on to summarize the studies that demonstrate this interesting idea. This is all well and good for the fiction and most non-fiction with the special exceptions of technical and peer-reviewed journal writing. Unfortunately, I wish to write in peer-reviewed journals where the age old paradigms of attention to formal detail and process still exist. If I ever write a book I look forward to unleashing my creative talents in story form. But, since I am not changing the format of the jornal article in my generation, back to the factory settings.