So I just got comments from reviewers for my second journal article, one reviewer thought it was great, the other said that the language was clumsy. My writing style was considered a strong point during my masters, and in my phd upgrade submission. The papers were all read by numerous people (between 2 and 4 colleagues each). But this is the second time that someone has made this kind of comment to me. I cant understand how language can be pleasant to one group of people and heinous to another, and a month before I'm due to submit I,m starting to worry that my thesis is horribly written and no-one has bothered to tell me. Arrrrgh!

Can i fail if the examiner doesnt like my style?

I often wonder on this point. my subject and writing style is very novelistic and literary (though I am in history) and I would say a lot the thesis writing style is "frosting". i am close to submission too in a month, and worry that the style that some people have complimented or encouraged will be absolutely hated by examiners!! eek.

I think writing style is a matter of personal opinion and i don't think you can fail based on it, unless you write really poorly using inappropriate language, grammar, etc throughout. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Siwee, I sympathise with your situation. My writing style has been attacked from all angles. "Too simplistic", "too flowery", "too many adjectives", "too many clauses". Due to the nature of my topic, I have to please both Literature people and Historians. My advice would be to just make sure that your writing is as clear as possible. Ask friends ans colleagues to read it and see if they can easily understand it, and to highlight anything which seems overly complicated and ambiguous. With succint and clear writing, in any discipline, you surely can't offend.

I think that if when reading it it is accessible and clear then it should be fine. Some people are just really picky. I handed a piece of work to my non-academic supervisor (who is my age and less qualified), I just wanted a comment about the CONTENT and she red-penned it all! but her changes were ridiculous, just changing the order of the sentence e.g. "theory x suggests that this happens, however, theory y says..." to "Whereas theory y says this, theory x suggests.." The changes were often much worse.

On a separate occassion I also had a piece of writing that went into the press, and the press officer at uni tried to re-write it! I had tried to write it so it was easy to read for laymen, BUT if an academic had a look through, it had appropriate use of terms. She had changed all these terms e.g. she changed 'people in powerful positions' (power being the appropriate academic term) to 'people in senior positions' - NOT THE SAME THING!

One thing I can't stand when I read other people's work is when people try to write in a very complex academic language which can only be understood by the person who invented and wrote the dictionary, who later ate a thesaurus. This drives me nuts!

If I have to reach for a dictionary when I read something, I quite often put it down. It just comes across to me as "try-hard", and I think the essence of the arguments these people are trying to put across is often lost. I much prefer more simplistic writing styles.

That was a rather random rant. I apologise.

Whilst I dislike texts that are so heavy and laden with thesaurus "try-hard" words, I do think part of the joy of reading academic work in the humanities, is being able to read and use the English language (or indeed any language it is written in) to one of the fullest extents possible. Which sometimes involves using words or turns of phrase that are not regularly employed, but are perfect for word usage in the context of a doctoral thesis. Not that my English is great, but I have read some people's theses and been a bit turned-off by the sparse writing style that has turned what should be an interesting subject dull.

I find a good writing style and depth of language very difficult in my area because so many ordinary words have precise definitions. It's like someone chopped all the most useful descriptive words out of the dictionary! Usually 'clumsy' is how I would describe writing I consider imprecise grammatically or not approaching the crux of the argument in the most elegant fashion, coming at it from the wrong angle.

If you've passed so many tests before now Siwee, including presumably your supervisor reading thesis drafts, then I wouldn't worry about this late-stage reviewer feedback.

I had a major problem with my writing style, which my supervisor highlighted early on in my thesis writing (my Masters had been fine though). I was able to correct it. I've not been criticised since.

Also put me down as another one who doesn't like to reach for a dictionary while reading a paper. I'm a humanities student, but I still think academic work should be straightforward to read, and not needlessly convoluted, as some academics seem to think it should be!

In my view I write sharp direct sentences. Like my granny used to say: "shit or get off the pot".