oralcare123, I went back and read your earlier comment regarding writing in a "spoken" way and wanted to add another suggestion.
Many novice writers think that the reason that their writing doesn't look "professional" is because it is too casual and spills out like the spoken word. Almost always, this is an illusion. In reality, if you picked up that essay that you wrote and spoke it aloud, you would immediately realize that it sounds jilted and awkward and structurally confusing to the ear. Try this exercise that I did in my first writing class as a freshman in college: pick up your essay and read it out loud as naturally as possible. You will quickly realize that even though it seemed like you wrote it down as naturally as you would have spoken it, you would not sound like that if you were talking to someone about a topic you understood well and wanted to communicate accurately to your audience.
Think about a time when you were speaking to a friend or a relative about an idea that excited you, but you needed to explain it. Because of your interest in the topic, you were knowledgeable and confident in telling them about it. The words and details probably flowed off your tongue easily. That's exactly what you want to mimic in your writing, and you have the luxury of time to craft and organize it.
Good writing, even good technical writing regarding technical subjects, should generally read as clearly and persuasively as it is spoken. If you don't think of yourself as particularly good at rhetoric, imagine an internal narrator who is persuasive. Give him or her a voice. Have them read it to you in your head. How does it sound?
If anything, thinking about writing as a way to convey a thought that might otherwise be spoken effectively should help your writing.
For myself, I often think about presenters at TED Talks. I love the way that many of them are able to convey ideas in a simple but persuasive way, despite the complexity of the topics.
However, as a quick caveat, while I think and hope all of this will be helpful to you, keep in mind that there is also a time and place for each kind of writing. I would, for example, discourage you down the road from becoming gripped with courage from your new powers of creativity and compose a flowery sonnet in your lab report. Though, who knows, maybe your professor is a secret Shakespearean enthusiast. The point is simply that there are times to be poignant and there are times to get to the point.
Good luck. Writing can be ever so fun, if you let it.
