Writing Styles

I well remember my first English class here. I wrote an essay on "Liminality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". I looked up the terms and spun off the essay with all the usual flourishes and turns of phrase that had served me so well throughout high school. The result: a 25% mark dip and an admonition to write more simply in the future. Sorry, not an admonition, an instruction. Amateur Victorian Lady Novelist indeed. Bah! Humbug!!

Do you "attempt to dissuade" someone from a course of action, do you "try to persuade him out of it", or do you "go 'Don't do it!'?" It all depends, not only on the subject and the topic as you might expect, but also on the individual prof.

"... an unfortunate shibboleth that, due to my previous boasting, betrayed them as my own", or "Jeez, I shudda kept my big mouth shut cus now they'll all know whose it all is." Yes, I'm exaggerating, but the point is a valid one. What to one might be a suitable literary style would be puffed-up, strained, and artificial bloviation to another. Or what one would accept as straightforward and workmanlike, another would regard as bare-bones adequacy that betrays no familiarity with the subtleties of the language.

How do you find out what the Prof wants? Be attentive, very attentive to the way he or she phrases things, especially in writing. Look closely at something that is identified in the class as an example of good writing. See if you can find someone who's taken courses from the same person before.

Or (and this has taken me a while to learn), you can always ask.