Running head: COMPARE & CONTRAST ON INFORMAL &FROMAL WRITING

Compare & Contrast on Informal & Formal Writing Paul Tarrance Ms. Priest Winston- Salem State University

Compare & Contrast on Informal & Formal Writing There are big differences between informal and formal writing. Informal and formal writing are pieces that are used everyday whether you know it or not. Informal writing being the Writing style refers to the manner in which an author chooses to write to his or her audience. A style reveals both the writer's personality and voice, but it also shows how she or he perceives the audience. While Formal writing is a form of complex writing that requires following a set of strict rules. Formal writing is common in academics and business. Some of the requirements of formal writing include objectivity (not personal), complexity, format of writing is in third person and passive. The three main differences are diction, sentence structure, and point of view. Informal writing is most often used in blogs, web entries, and magazines. The blog that we made uses a lot of the simple diction. The tone of the blog was more relaxed because of the simple diction. As seen in the picture This is effective in this form of writing because usually informal writing should be short and easy to read to keep readers engaged and serve to more then one audience of age. This form of writing makes the use of many contraction, abbreviations, and slang words effective. The sentence structure is not the normal paragraphs. Three sentences can be considered a paragraph and bullet points are acceptable. Formal writings first person point of view allows the author to use more of their opinion, emotion, and positions. In my blog I list my opinions and my perspective by telling what I believe

3 should be done to improve the DCPS school system not feeling room for the audience to think but giving them my sole purpose. This style of writing differs from other styles such as informal. Formal writing is most often used in reports, research, and academic papers. Formal writing tends to have a very complex choice of diction. The presence of strong academic words serves as an indication that the piece is informal. As shown in this image below. With no contractions and abbreviations the author puts all their thoughts into a statement that represents the main focus of a piece. The piece is structured in a format that is standard in more than 1 place. From the spacing of the paper to the way that the paragraphs are written. The sentence structure is consistent. Then the point of view in a formal paper is usually 2nd or 3rd person, staying away from 1st person and opinionated ideas. This services the paper in making the piece factual and mind provoking. For example in my position paper I did not give my opinion or tie my emotion to the paper. By simply stating the fact the audience was able to decipher the purpose. Both informal and formal writing are different but yet useful in the appropriate time. Informal writing being for more blogs, magazines, or online posting, gives you more room to think and add on to a piece. While formal writing is more appropriate in business, reports, or academic papers. This writing style gives readers the sole purpose by

4 structuring their minds with facts and statements. Both pieces are different and serve in different ways in order to get their point across.