I think it's important to differentiate Conversational and Stream of Consciousness tones. Most people speak as they think of ideas which falls under Stream of C

I think it's important to differentiate Conversational and Stream of Consciousness tones. Most people speak as they think of ideas which falls under Stream of Consciousness. If you write that way, you will end up with an unorganized mess full of filler words and phrases. The professors who say don't write conversationally are actually warning you not to fill your writing with the nonsense that permeates normal speech. Paul Graham mentions taking physically awkward bits and making them sound conversational. That is the trick. Don't start with stream of consciousness and call it conversational. Start with normal writing and make it flow like a conversation. Writing conversationally is a bit like writing dialogue. The trick it to taken written word and make it sound natural. Unfortunately it's a very unnatural act to do this well, and you will notice they do differ in subtle ways. For example, no one says goodbye or asks for change in dialogue.