Writing is a way to express facts, opinions, beliefs, and many other aspects. Writing can be done through formal writing or informal writing. Formal or informal writing is utilized depending on the circumstances of the case and the intended audience.
Formal Writing vs Informal Writing
The main difference between Formal Writing and Informal Writing is that formal writing is more professional, in nature, and mainly utilized for business or education purposes, while informal writing is personal and utilized for casual purposes.
However, the above is not the only difference. A comparison between both the terms on certain parameters can shed light on subtle aspects:
Comparison Table Between Formal Writing and Informal Writing (in Tabular Form)
| Parameter of Comparison | Formal Writing | Informal Writing |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Writing which is more professional and official in tone | Writing which is more personal and casual |
| Personal aspect | Lacks personal touch | Has a personal touch to the writing |
| Type of tone | Has a professional tone to the writing | Lacks a professional tone to the writing. Informal writing has a casual tone. |
| Type of voice | Passive voice | Active voice |
| Use of colloquialism | No use of colloquialism | More use of colloquialism |
| Use of words such as “I”, “We” | No use of or rare use of words like “I”, “We” | More use of words like “I”, “We” |
| Usage of slang | No use of slang as formal writing is mostly written for business or official purpose | Usage of slang is prevalent |
| Type of sentences | Complicated and long | Simple, short and straightforward |
| Use of interjections/ exclamations | No use of interjections or exclamations | There is frequent use of interjections or exclamation marks |
| Use of contractions | Less | More |
| Use of emotional language | No | Yes |
| Structuring of words | Words are perfectly structured | Words can be loosely structured |
| Utilization | Formal writing is used for business purposes (especially writing to any client or superiors), professional purpose, education, or academic purpose. | Informal writing is used for writing personal emails, personal or quick invitations. Informal writing may be used with care in official communication but use will be very rare. |
| Intended audience | Business people, university people, professional stakeholders | Friends, family |
| Example | John is believed to be not reliable | I believe that John is not reliable, don’t you think so? |
| Time usage | More time and efforts will be required to construct formal writing | Less efforts and time will be required to develop an informal writing |
What is Formal Writing?
Formal writing as the name denotes means writing of a formal nature. In other words, formal writing is written following certain rules of writing. That means formal writing has certain rules which need to be used or kept in perspective in the writing so that it can be called as formal writing.
Formal writing is used for formal purposes. Formal purpose can be varied but something quite common could be a situation where a person is not very friendly with the other person to whom the communication is being made or person is writing to someone in an official capacity. In all workplaces, formal writing is in prevalence and some organizations may have strict etiquette on what should be included and excluded in formal writing.
Formal writing may be considered difficult to write because of the inclusion of certain rules such as choice of correct words, avoiding repetition of words, avoiding any emotional tone or jargon, and other aspects.
Formal writing comes with long and compound sentences and the use of passive voice. Further, formal writing will not use personal pronouns such as “I”, “We”, “You”, etc.Formal writing is commonly used for business purposes, academics, and any other professional purposes. Formal writing if used in a correct sense may convey significant respect to the intended recipient.
What is Informal Writing?
Informal writing as the name denotes is writing of informal nature. In other words, informal writing is a writing which has a relaxed, friendly, or unofficial style, or manner.
Informal writing is full of colloquialism meaning it is full of casual, informal, friendly, and maybe even slangy writing. There is a strong usage of active voice in the informal writing and the focus is on the subject. Informal writing also uses a lot of first and second-person pronouns such as “I”, We”, “‘you’. Informal writing may also have a lot of emotional overdose in the conversation.
Informal writing will not have any specific rules to be followed for making the conversation. Informal writing will have straightforward and short sentences. The words in informal writing may be loosely organized or structured. The conversation may be filled with slang if it is an informal writing.
Informal writing is commonly used for personal, ordinary, familiar, or and casual communication or conversation. Informal writing if not used in a proper sense may even hurt the feelings of the intended recipients.
Main Differences Between Formal Writing and Informal Writing
- Formal writing is professional. Informal writing is personal.
- Formal writing does not use colloquialism. Informal writing makes use of colloquialism.
- Formal writing is used for business, professional and academic writings. Informal writing is utilized for writing personal emails.
- Formal writing will utilize passive voice. Informal writing will utilize active voice.
- Formal writing does not use slang. Informal writing may use slang.
- Formal writing will have long and compound sentences. Informal writing will have short, straightforward and easy sentences.
Conclusion
People often confuse Article writing with Essay writing. This is because the term Essay is sometimes used to refer to any form of written composition. The tone, format or style of writing doesn’t matter. Its definition sometimes overlaps with those of an article, pamphlet or a short story.
Nevertheless, what distinguishes an Essay from an Article is that the former is more structured, coherent and well researched than the latter. Also, the former expresses the writer’s views while the latter does not.
References
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650210362465
- https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/journals/text/23/3/article-p321.xml