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In my field, writing quality was on the very lowest rung of importance, below even teaching evaluations. As much as I value clear, concise prose, I’d say a grad student would be better served working on public speaking especially when faced with hostile questioning, and, sadly, with brown-nosing. Yes I am bitter :p

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I think even more than public speaking is just seeking a therapist. People get in over their head but its by their own doing. The stakes are never as high as you have built them up in your head. People want you to pass.

how can you tell? likely this is field-dependent but even if because reviewers dont tend to comment on writing quality it doesnt mean it doesnt play a factor in acceptance. if you annoy people, (sometimes even especially) in ways that dont feel substantive enough to merit mentioning in a review, it can make them more inclined to be critical about aspects they might otherwise gloss over.

(i acknowledge this is unsatisfyingly unfalsifiable, and that it can also go the other way, in that selectively bad writing can be used to attempt to paper over holes)

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