Formal and Informal Writing Examples

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Formal vs. Informal – Who’s It For?

Often considered more engaging, informal writing figuratively loosens the author’s constricting tie to offer readers familiarity and character. Formal writing, on the other hand, is used to deliver information succinctly and factually.

When determining which style is appropriate, consider how you approach your audience in a face-to-face conversation. For instance, how do you speak with your peers vs. your clients? How do you speak with your boss vs. your spouse? Based on the audience, match up the tone you use verbally with the tone you use in your writing.

In addition to your audience, consider your brand. What style do you want to be the voice of your articles? Do you want to be memorable with a loose, informal approach? Or do you want to create a solid foundation of credibility based on objectivity in a formal approach? What style best represents your brand?

With your audience and brand in mind, try out these tips when writing formally or informally!

Formal and Informal Style Tips and Examples

• Formal writing favors longer, more detailed sentences to thoroughly convey a thought.
   

The honey badger is a species native to Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent; however, it is most dissimilar from other badger species due to its resemblance to the weasel.

• Informal writing favors short, simple sentences.
   

The honey badger can be found in Africa. It looks like a weasel-bear hybrid.

• Formal writing tends to be direct by using jargon to be definitive.
   

The dorsal side and head of the Emperor Penguin is black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast, and bright-yellow ear patches.

• Informal tends to be more conversational, as well as uses contractions, abbreviations, figures of speech, slang, and other colloquialisms.
   

The Emperor Penguin has been hot in the news and even the box office. If you’re not sure what this lordly penguin looks like, it has a black head, bright-yellow spots around the ears, and a big ol’ white belly.

• Formal writing uses conservative punctuation (e.g., periods, commas, etc.).
   

The tiger (the largest of the cat species) is the third largest land carnivore.

• Informal writing is generous with abrupt and dramatic punctuation (e.g., exclamation marks, the ellipses, the dash, etc.).
   

The tiger – the biggest cat of them all – is third in line to be the largest meat-eating animal in the world!

• Formal writing uses an impersonal tone and discusses topics with more gravity.
   

As scavengers, lobsters are omnivores; however, lobsters have been known to resort to cannibalism in captivity.

• Informal writing uses an emotional tone, first or second person point-of-view, and often discusses topics with humor.
   

Would you consider cannibalism if you and others of your kind were held prisoner for days or weeks without food? The poor lobster – who usually feeds on fish, worms, and other plant life – often does.

Article writing is dynamic – meaning two authors of the same niche, writing about the same topics may find success by writing in either style (formal or informal). Discover which style suits your audience and your brand by testing a few of these informal or formal writing styles in your articles. Often the best approach is a balance: formal to maintain authority and informal to maintain interest. So why not give it a try?

Posted by Penny, Managing Editor on September 24, 2012 at 9:00 am | 65,211 views