The writing habits school drilled into you solve your teacher's problem, not your reader's.
Grading dozens of papers, teachers reward a template, a findable thesis, checkable rules, and proof of what's in your head.
Real readers want none of it; they scan for a problem that costs them something and leave the moment they smell continuity instead of value.
So which school habits are quietly costing you readers?
Every habit that optimizes for the grader instead of the reader.
Open on instability, not background; write to change the reader rather than express yourself; adapt to your reader's register instead of universal rules; and establish value by correcting an error in their thinking, not by filling a gap nobody asked about.
The through-line is simple: value is decided by the reader, so every choice has to serve them, not the rubric.