my whereabouts, whenabouts and ifabouts, oh, geez

Now, as I am working on this translation about nematodes, on pine wilt nematode to be more specific, I came across this grammar problem and some of you might share a thought or two about it.

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While I was searching (and finding) some neat advice on the use of that/which for restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses**, I came across the problem of 'where'.

As my English develops (that is: revives and collapses and the loop starts all over again...) during the years I noticed myself using the word 'where' more, than ever.

Now I found on a website that using 'where' is more informal, and when the audience expects you to be more academic, or formal, you should use 'which'.

So I'm going through my translation text and check whether my style suits the needs of a PhD thesis.

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Take this sentence for example (uhm, this is a direct copy from the thesis, please do not use it for your purposes, I'm sorry, it is ridiculous, but still...)

'However, where pure-bred nematodes are maintained on a PDA medium, the method of the lysis procedure is not crucial.' This is how I translated the Hungarian sentence. But now I feel I should change 'where' to 'when', or 'if', or with a different structure, to 'which'.

I am almost done with the text, it's 20 pages with references and all, and once I'm finished, I'm giving the whole document a style checkup.

I just peeked into it here and there and was surprised by the amount of 'where's. I am in awe. Or shock :)

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Is it something informal, or modern, or is it just floppy writing?

Were those 'were's correct was it an informal text, like a diary, or something?

Should I change them all?

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**

This is something a non-native speaker, like I do not necessarily embrace naturally. We have to learn it. And I admit sometimes I make the strangest mistakes. I was well into all sorts of Times and Sequence of Times and whatnot, but still was unable to manage the interrogative form of Simple Past. There you have it :(

But I digress.