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It tripped my “trying to hard to write eloquent, witty prose” senses. I proofread a lot of papers in college and wrote a lot of columns in the school newspaper. This is a common style. Thesaurus-driven word choice.

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Basically the "if I use fancy words, I sound smart to those who don't actually comprehend the words' meanings"

I don't know if it's the guy's case, however, there are people who actually delight themselves in writing complex sentences comparable to a mathematician's delight in doing mathematics or a painter's artistry on canvas.

I'm noticing it's mainly an US-centric trend to have negative feelings towards good and complex writing.

i used to do exactly this as an undergrad! i thought it made my writing sound whimsical or whatever, as if emulating the style of Lemony Snickett or _why the lucky stiff

i've since replaced this (bad imho) habit with other bad habits, fortunately

It goes without saying you shouldn't imitate the style of other people but have your own. Also, there's actually a feeling of joy in writing good prose and seeing the result, which is something I never mastered in English, as evidenced for example by my repeated use of "but", but (yeah..) kind of did in my native language.

yeah, it tripped my "this is college writing" sense.

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