Formal and Informal Essay Writing: A beginner's Guide




 

If you are writing an essay as a semester assignment, or you are about to write a thesis or a dissertation, or if you are writing an email to a colleague, it is essential to bear in mind that you have to determine the path your writing would tend to follow; it means, whom am I writing to? An essay writer  ?

 


 

As a secondary school teacher, after spending a number of years in the classroom and taking online educational sessions, I can proudly say that I am proficient at differentiating my piece of writing which depends on the task presented. When it comes to writing, if you are a newbie who is making efforts to expand their knowledge or has begun to suffer from bad cases of colygraphia, this blog would greatly help you differentiate between the informal as well as formal writing, and teach you tips and tricks to become a better writer.

 

I have often been asked about the major difference between informal as well as formal writing. An essay writer needs to know both forms of writing before beginning to craft a piece of writing. This blog would help eliminate the question once for all. 

 

Formal Essay

 

A piece of writing, which is used to persuade or inform the reader, is known as a formal essay. Formal essays, unlike a narrative or a personal essay, are objective in nature because they tend to revolve around examples as well as facts. 

 

Many people would tend to consider formal essays as used for school, but an essay has a number of aims and purposes apart from academia. It includes writing to a client, job applications and reaching out to a stranger.

 

Formal essays generally use third person pronouns for example, him, her, she, he, his, hers, itself, they, their, themselves, it, its, etcetera. Such essays need to have an objective tone with no emotional input. The perspectives and ideas are often presented as powerful arguments or unbiased facts instead of personal opinions and feelings.

 

Formal essays have an outline which emphasizes a transparent idea or argument, which provides backing support to the thesis. A formal academic essay is written in the following way: introductory paragraphs, body paragraphs and concluding paragraphs. 

 

You can also make use of technical words or proper English vocabulary relevant to the subject. You should never use ‘you’ and ‘I’ because such words are generally not in accordance with the academic writing style. The use of correct spacing between the paragraphs and proper punctuation can create a great structure for your formal essay. 

 

Informal Essay 

 

An informal essay does not follow a strict format when it comes to usage of language or formatting. Instead, it is written in a more conversational style. Informal essays reflect a certain perspective and are quite informative. They are just written more informally or more loosely.

 

They are generally used to demonstrate political views, personal opinions, organize perspectives or ideas.

 

They are usually written for pleasure. They are usually written with first person pronouns, they can also be written as second person. The tone which is used is quite personal or laid back. It can be serious, thoughtful, casual, ironic or amusing. When I Write my essay in an informal tone, I do not follow a specific outline, which can be followed. But if the author tends to follow one in terms of structure, the informal essays do not follow a rigid structure. 

 

All the contractions, words and slangs can be easily used in the informal essays. So you can say straight away, “This essay is for you, hence you should be attentive”, instead of saying, “to whom it may concern”. 

 

The grammar as well as punctuation need not be perfect grammatically but the audience needs to be considered before drawing onto the conclusion and the way to move forward. 

 

Informal essays are usually written for the purpose of entertainment, a response to a biased opinion, a reflection in a way which a text message can never do. If you are suffering from colygraphia, you need to look out for inspiration. Formal and informal essays can either be short or long, depending on the topic or nature of writing. There is no hard and fast rule for the length of formal and informal essays, but you have to approach it the same way you would want to for a conversation. You should always use a readable language. Never use a vernacular language which is not familiar to you. 

 

If you want to better organize your ideas, you can bubble map them through an outline in the order which would be presenting your ideas or a list of concepts you would want to express. You should never be afraid to make grammatical mistakes. You need to keep in mind that you will never lose points for using slang words such as ‘that’s dope’ or ‘waddup’ to express your opinions or ideas. However, do keep in mind that your vocabulary use has to be dependent on your audience.

 

Writing formal and informal essays could be a daunting task for most students. An essay writing service can help you in this regard to a great extent. It is not advisable to always use an essay writing service for your essay but you can use the service quite often. 

 

By now you might have understood what the difference between a formal as well as an informal essay is. I hope this blog has been quite helpful for you. 



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