How to Avoid Informal Writing

While informal writing may be acceptable in friendly e-mail or in chat rooms,

excessive colloquialism can diminish the quality of a formal written text.
Presentation may be improved by applying the following techniques:

1. Understand the difference between formal and informal English. Formal and
informal English differ in word choice, word usage, and grammatical structures.
Informal writing might utilize the words “contraption,” “fire,” “kid,” “how
come,” and “quote” as a noun. A formal writer might prefer “device,” “dismiss,”
“child,” “why,” and “quotation.” Informal writing may sound more like
conversation while formal writing may be more polished. An informal style may
make listeners feel more comfortable when you are speaking, but a formal writing
style can make a good impression.
2. Use appropriate punctuation. For example, American English employs a colon
in a formal letter as in “Dear John:” but British English employs a comma. Limit
parentheses, exclamation points, and dashes (prefer colons) in formal writing.
Avoid the ampersand (&); write out the word “and”. Punctuate your writing as
you go along to reduce your risk of leaving out punctuation.
3. Avoid common colloquial words and expressions (colloquialisms), such as
“cute” (use “adorable”), “yeah,” “how-do-you-do,” and “movie” (use “film”), as
listed below or labeled as such in your dictionary. This includes slang such as
“cool,” “dude,” and “humongous”. Two good phrases to delete are “you know”
and “you might be thinking.” You do not have the power to know your readers’
thoughts while they read your paper. Another empty sentence is “Think about it.”
Assume that your readers are already thinking about what they are reading, and
state your point more clearly. The adverb “pretty,” meaning “relatively,” “fairly,”
or “quite,” is unacceptable in all formal writing and is often unnecessary.
4. Avoid contractions. Note that the full form of “can’t” is one word: “cannot,” not
“can not.”
5. Try to avoid the first and second person. Formal writing often tries to be
objective, and the pronouns “I” and “you” tend to imply subjectivity. Phrases such
as “I think that” can be deleted from a sentence when it is obvious that this is the
author’s opinion. Using the pronoun “I” is almost always acceptable in personal
writing, and the pronoun “you” is almost always acceptable in letters and how-
to’s. In the most formal writing, the pronoun “I” is replaced by the pronoun “we”;
this is known as the royal we or the editorial we. Formal writing generally avoids
the pronoun “you” when it refers to people in general.
o You should sleep eight hours each night. (informal)
o One should sleep eight hours each night. (formal)
o Most people should sleep at least eight hours each night. (formal usage
allowing for exceptions)
6. Do not hesitate to split an infinitive when it is warranted. Split infinitives are
common in legal writing, an important type of formal English. In fact, the split
infinitive is encountered in the most formal of writing. Split infinitives can be
used even in very formal writing that avoids the active voice. Infinitives, along
with gerunds, contribute to an active writing style and show action but are not
actually in the active voice. Voice is a property of clauses, and infinitives and
gerunds form phrases. Split infinitives are grammatically correct.
The split-infinitive rule is based on Latin, but split infinitives actually make
writing more like Latin, not less so. The Romans tended to place adverbs right
next to verbs, and adverbs usually preceded verbs. In formal writing, adverbs also
tend to precede verbs rather than follow them. In Latin, Captain Kirk would have
said “audacter ire” (translated as “boldly to go” or “to boldly go”). Oxford
dictionary says that “boldly to go” is more formal than “to go boldly”; that is most
likely because of the Latin word order. The effectiveness of the split infinitive
arises from the fact that “to” and the verb are like a single unit. After all, “to go”
would be translated into Latin as the single word “ire.” For emphasis, an artist
places a large picture between two smaller pictures; in the same way, an adverb
becomes emphatic when placed between “to” and the verb.
7. Do not be afraid to separate the auxiliary (helping) verb and the main verb.
8. Know when to end a sentence with a preposition (even in the most formal of
English).
9. Always include the relative pronoun. In formal English, you should be sure to
always include “whom” or “that” even when they are not essential to your
meaning. The relative pronoun can be omitted when only a participle is used; in
that case, there is no longer a relative clause.
o This is the paper I wrote. (informal)
o This is the paper that I wrote. (formal)
o That was the paper written by me. (formal) (This version uses the past
participle and does not contain a relative clause. It is the most formal
version because it does not contain any verbs in the active voice.)
o The bear that was dancing was graceful. (formal)
 o The bear dancing was graceful. (more formal) (“Dancing” is not active; it
is not even a verb and is actually an adjective; this becomes clearer when
the sentence is rewritten as “The dancing bear was graceful.”)
10. Do not start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. In the written
language, do not use coordinating conjunctions such as “and”, “but”, “so”, or “or”
to start a sentence. Coordinating conjunctions are meant to join words, phrases,
and clauses; a coordinating conjunction is left dangling without a role to play
when it comes at the beginning of a sentence. Consider attaching the sentence that
starts with a coordinating conjunction to the previous sentence, substituting the
period for a comma to produce a compound sentence. You can also use
transitional adverbs such as “additionally” (or “moreover”), “nevertheless” (or
“however”), “therefore” (or “thus”), and “alternatively” (or “instead” or
“otherwise”). “Though” can be used at the end of a sentence: “This product here
is much cheaper. It will last only half as long, though.” Starting a sentence with
“also” is useful in casual writing but should be avoided in formal English unless
the word “also” is modifying a verb (usually in the imperative mood or an
inverted sentence structure): “Also read Chapters Two and Three;” “Also included
is a free ticket.” A paragraph that starts many sentences with coordinating
conjunctions may also lack smooth transitions.
11. Develop short, choppy sentences into longer, more graceful sentences. Formal
writing generally uses longer sentences, such as compound and complex
sentences. You can develop two simple sentences into one compound or complex
sentence. Long sentences add variety to your writing and can be particularly
effective when paired with short sentences; the contrast grabs the readers’
attention. As the last sentence shows, you also can use a semicolon to join two
simple sentences, provided that they are closely related to each other.
12. Avoid clichés to be formal. Formal writing tries to use literal language that will
not be misunderstood by any of the readers. Clichés can make your writing
unoriginal, but they can sometimes be fun in casual writing, especially as an
original play-on-words called an anti-cliché. Here are some clichés to avoid in
formal writing:
o Hercules was as strong as an ox.
o I have to give an arm and a leg to find a parking spot during the holiday
season.
o It was as pretty as a picture.
13. Avoid stage directions. Do not commence a letter by telling the recipient what
you plan to do in the letter or begin an essay by telling the reader what the paper
will discuss.
o “I am writing to you to ask you to. . . .”
o “This paper is going to talk about how. . . .”
14. Avoid vague words. Vague words are less formal and are open to interpretation;
they do not express your ideas as well as more precise words would. “A few” or
“enough” can often be replaced by something more precise.

(wikihow.com)