Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > What Is Formal Writing Style and When Should You Use It?
What Is Formal Writing Style and When Should You Use It?
Writing style is the way a writer expresses their thoughts. It includes choices in grammar and punctuation , as well as the overall tone and organization of a written piece. Style varies with the subject matter, audience and context. For example, an academic paper will have a much different style than a text message to a friend.
Writing also follows a particular style guide that dictates specific grammar, punctuation and word choice—like Associated Press (AP), American Psychological Association (APA), or Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS).
Regardless of the specific guidelines used, all writing can be described as either formal or informal style.
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What’s the difference between formal and informal writing styles?
Informal writing is for everyday use. It reflects how you naturally speak and write to friends, family, and casual acquaintances. It has a more personal tone and includes contractions, slang, and figures of speech. Informal writing sounds similar to a personal conversation.
Formal writing is written for an audience you don’t know on a personal level. It’s typically more complex than informal writing. Formal writing has a less personal tone and the language is more proper.
Characteristics of formal writing style
In formal writing, the writer uses a more objective approach, stating main points and then supporting those points with arguments. Formal writing is less emotional in style, so it avoids things like exclamation marks and emojis.
Here are three quick rules you can follow to write in a more formal style:
- Use proper grammar and terminology. Stay away from slang, figures of speech, abbreviated words. For example, say “technology” instead of “tech” and “provide updates” instead of “give a rundown.”
- Take an objective approach. Avoid the use of first person (I, we, us) and second person (you), and use third person instead (he, she, they, or the person’s name).
- Use full words instead of contractions or acronyms. For example, instead of saying “didn’t” or “won’t” say “did not” or “will not.” Avoid acronyms unless the acronym is more commonly understood than the written out phrase, like NASA or BBC.
Traditional rules of formal writing style also say to use the passive voice and to make sentences longer and more complex. However, these rules are changing as it becomes more widely recognized that the passive voice and long, complex sentences make writing harder to read and understand.
When to use a formal writing style
Informal and formal writing styles each have a time and a place. Choose the most appropriate style based on the purpose of your communication, as well as your audience and the method you’re using to communicate.
- Use a formal writing style in business, legal, or academic writing unless your audience is someone you know in person.
- Writing that will appear in print tends to be more formal than email, while text and direct messaging are the least formal ways to communicate.
While most of your day-to-day communication is informal, it’s worth learning more about writing in a formal style. Use great writing software with built-in document editing features to flag informal language and slang words so you can make adjustments before you publish.
When used correctly, a formal style goes a long way toward creating writing that’s clear and better received.
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Definition and Examples of Formal Essays
Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms
- An Introduction to Punctuation
- Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
- M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
- B.A., English, State University of New York
In composition studies , a formal essay is a short, relatively impersonal composition in prose . Also known as an impersonal essay or a Baconian essay (after the writings of England's first major essayist , Francis Bacon ).
In contrast to the familiar or personal essay , the formal essay is typically used for the discussion of ideas. Its rhetorical purpose is generally to inform or persuade.
"The technique of the formal essay," says William Harmon, "is now practically identical with that of all factual or theoretical prose in which literary effect is secondary" ( A Handbook to Literature , 2011).
Examples and Observations
- "' Formal' essays were introduced in England by [Francis] Bacon , who adopted Montaigne's term. Here the style is objective, compressed, aphoristic , wholly serious. . . . In modern times, the formal essay has become more diversified in subject matter, style , and length until it is better known by such names as article , dissertation, or thesis, and factual presentation rather than style or literary effect has become the basic aim." (L. H. Hornstein, G. D. Percy, and C. S. Brown, The Reader's Companion to World Literature , 2nd ed. Signet, 2002)
- A Blurred Distinction Between Formal Essays and Informal Essays "Francis Bacon and his followers had a more impersonal, magisterial, law-giving, and didactic manner than the skeptical Montaigne. But they should not be viewed as opposites; the distinction between formal and informal essay can be overdone, and most great essayists have crossed the line frequently. The difference is one of degree. [William] Hazlitt was essentially a personal essayist , though he wrote theater and art criticism; Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin were essentially formal essayists , though they may have tried a personal essay once in a while. Personality creeps into the most impersonal of writers: it is difficult to read Bacon on friendship or having children , for instance, without suspecting he is talking about autobiographical matters. Dr. Johnson was probably more a moral essayist than a personal one, though his work has such an individual, idiosyncratic stamp that I have persuaded myself to place him in the personal camp. George Orwell seems split fifty-fifty, an essay hermaphrodite who always kept one eye on the subjective and one on the political. . . . "The Victorian era saw a turn toward the formal essay , the so-called essay of ideas written by [Thomas] Carlyle, Ruskin, [Matthew] Arnold, Macaulay, Pater. Between Lamb and Beerbohm there was scarcely an English personal essay, with the exception of those by Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas De Quincey . . . ." (Phillip Lopate, Introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay . Anchor, 1994)
- Voice in the Impersonal Essay "[E]ven when 'I' plays no part in the language of an essay, a firm sense of personality can warm the voice of the impersonal essay narrator . When we read Dr. [Samuel] Johnson and Edmund Wilson and Lionel Trilling , for instance, we feel that we know them as fully developed characters in their own essays, regardless of their not referring personally to themselves." (Phillip Lopate, "Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character." Writing Creative Nonfiction , ed. by Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard. Writer's Digest Books, 2001)
- Crafting the Impersonal "I" "Unlike the exploratory 'self' of Montaigne, Francis Bacon's impersonal 'I' appears already to have arrived. Even in the comparatively expansive third edition of the Essays , Bacon provides few explicit hints as to either the character of the textual voice or the role of the expected reader. . . . [T]he absence of a felt 'self' on the page is a deliberate rhetorical effect: the effort to efface voice in the 'impersonal' essay is a way of evoking a distant but authoritative persona . . . . In the formal essay , invisibility must be forged." (Richard Nordquist, "Voices of the Modern Essay." University of Georgia, 1991)
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