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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35212
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35212
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Dry is not a precise or technical term in writing. It is more of an I-don't-know-what-it-is-but-I-know-I-don't-like-it term. There are a lot of those in writing because in the end it is the total effect of the writing that matters and either the total effect is pleasing or it is not.

However, most writing problems, or, to be more precise, most storytelling problems, are not about the prose, they are about the subject or the telling. A gripping tale told in short spare prose can be gripping. (See Hemingway.) 90% of the art is in the tale, not the prose. Bad prose can mar a fine tale; great prose cannot save a poor tale.

I say tale and story here, even though you are writing a scientific review article; not fiction. But all writing is really storytelling. Not classic Hero's Journey drama, but storytelling nonetheless. Storytelling is really just about showing the connection between things and the consequences that flow from those connections. At the base level, stories are interesting to the extent that we are interested in the consequences and convinced by the connections. A + B --\> C. Do I care about C? Do I believe that A and B are true and related?. Do I accept that C follows as a consequence of the relationship between A and B? That is storytelling.

If your review simply lays out A and B and does not explain and convince us of the relationship between them and the consequence C that follows from them, and give the reader a reason to care about C, it could well be described as dry.

Of course, it could be something else entirely, but this is the first place I would look.

Original score: 5