I think you're missing the point... The professor said the complex words were "unnecessary". Unless you want your future prospective employers to think you are a pompous asshole who uses big words for the sake of making yourself appear better than everyone else around you... Then by all means, ignore his advice. It's one thing to have an expansive vocabulary. It's quite another to know when to use it.

If you haven't seen the movie 'Idiocracy' yet, you should. It's a few years old, but I'm thinking it was actually a prophecy. Seriously, the only thing missing in it is iphones...

"They are warm, nice, people with big hearts". "They are humid prepossessing **** Sapiens with full sized aortic pumps"

I feel your pain. There was a girl in my freshman english class that interrupted the professor to ask what rhetorical meant.

Nothing says America like entitled teenagers who are incapable of listening to other people. It's good to have a broad vocabulary, but the vast, vast majority of the time, you should not use complicated or esoteric words when simple ones will do. The purpose of writing is to communicate information clearly, not to show off how many vocab words you know. It sounds like your prof is not criticizing your vocabulary, but is criticizing your writing style, and there's a good chance he or she is right.

Stop being so grandiloquent

Perhaps the OP is doing a literature degree and the professor doesn't want the OP to have a badly grammatical over use of large words book like the 50 shades series? I'm sure those books would have more merit if they didn't have bad grammar, an overuse of larger words (like seriously what 21 year old has a vocabulary that has massive words who comes from a family who aren't wealthy?) not to mention the fact they have some form of sexual contact every 2 minutes after it hits chapter 14? Of course lol.

If you were really as smart as you claim to be, you would have tested OUT of your English and Writing classes, because your essays were too complex for productive learning in required classes. Clearly you're just trying to sound smart. Complex vocabulary does not equal superior intelligence.

Your professor means that college level papers are supposed to be straight forward. It is in unnecessary to use big words because they are looking at the content and your ideas, not your ability to use a thesaurus. On top of that, papers don't get published unless they are direct and to the point.

I say you deserve it for the last sentence. Stop throwing a tantrum and understand that the professor is not wrong and that he is giving you constructive criticism.