Definition and Examples of Formal Essays

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

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In composition studies , a formal essay is a short, relatively impersonal composition in prose . Also known as an impersonal essay or a Baconian essay (after the writings of England's first major essayist , Francis Bacon ).

In contrast to the familiar or personal essay , the formal essay is typically used for the discussion of ideas. Its rhetorical purpose is generally to inform or persuade.

"The technique of the formal essay," says William Harmon, "is now practically identical with that of all factual or theoretical prose in which literary effect is secondary" ( A Handbook to Literature , 2011).

Examples and Observations

  • "' Formal' essays were introduced in England by [Francis] Bacon , who adopted Montaigne's term. Here the style is objective, compressed, aphoristic , wholly serious. . . . In modern times, the formal essay has become more diversified in subject matter, style , and length until it is better known by such names as article , dissertation, or thesis, and factual presentation rather than style or literary effect has become the basic aim." (L. H. Hornstein, G. D. Percy, and C. S. Brown, The Reader's Companion to World Literature , 2nd ed. Signet, 2002)
  • A Blurred Distinction Between Formal Essays and Informal Essays "Francis Bacon and his followers had a more impersonal, magisterial, law-giving, and didactic manner than the skeptical Montaigne. But they should not be viewed as opposites; the distinction between formal and informal essay can be overdone, and most great essayists have crossed the line frequently. The difference is one of degree. [William] Hazlitt was essentially a personal essayist , though he wrote theater and art criticism; Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin were essentially formal essayists , though they may have tried a personal essay once in a while. Personality creeps into the most impersonal of writers: it is difficult to read Bacon on friendship or having children , for instance, without suspecting he is talking about autobiographical matters. Dr. Johnson was probably more a moral essayist than a personal one, though his work has such an individual, idiosyncratic stamp that I have persuaded myself to place him in the personal camp. George Orwell seems split fifty-fifty, an essay hermaphrodite who always kept one eye on the subjective and one on the political. . . . "The Victorian era saw a turn toward the formal essay , the so-called essay of ideas written by [Thomas] Carlyle, Ruskin, [Matthew] Arnold, Macaulay, Pater. Between Lamb and Beerbohm there was scarcely an English personal essay, with the exception of those by Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas De Quincey . . . ." (Phillip Lopate, Introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay . Anchor, 1994)
  • Voice in the Impersonal Essay "[E]ven when 'I' plays no part in the language of an essay, a firm sense of personality can warm the voice of the impersonal essay narrator . When we read Dr. [Samuel] Johnson and Edmund Wilson and Lionel Trilling , for instance, we feel that we know them as fully developed characters in their own essays, regardless of their not referring personally to themselves." (Phillip Lopate, "Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character." Writing Creative Nonfiction , ed. by Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard. Writer's Digest Books, 2001)
  • Crafting the Impersonal "I" "Unlike the exploratory 'self' of Montaigne, Francis Bacon's impersonal 'I' appears already to have arrived. Even in the comparatively expansive third edition of the Essays , Bacon provides few explicit hints as to either the character of the textual voice or the role of the expected reader. . . . [T]he absence of a felt 'self' on the page is a deliberate rhetorical effect: the effort to efface voice in the 'impersonal' essay is a way of evoking a distant but authoritative persona . . . . In the formal essay , invisibility must be forged." (Richard Nordquist, "Voices of the Modern Essay." University of Georgia, 1991)
  • What Are the Different Types and Characteristics of Essays?
  • What Is a Personal Essay (Personal Statement)?
  • What Is Tone In Writing?
  • Plain Style in Prose
  • Figures of Speech: The Apostrophe as a Literary Device
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  • 6 Steps to Writing the Perfect Personal Essay
  • What Is Enlightenment Rhetoric?
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The Complete Guide to What Are the Major Differences Between a Formal and Informal Essay

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Whether you are writing an essay for an upcoming assignment, in the process of writing a dissertation, or simply writing an email to a colleague, it’s important to keep one thing in mind in order to determine the direction your writing will go – to whom am I writing to?

After spending several years in the classroom as a secondary teacher and sifting through an endless supply of online educational forums, I’ve learned how to masterfully differentiate my writing depending on the given task at hand.

You can too.

If you’re a newbie when it comes to writing, trying to expand your knowledge, or just suffering from a really bad case of colygraphia (I bet you didn’t know that means writer’s block), reading this article will give you a better understanding of what are the major differences between a formal and informal essay and give you tips to become a better writer.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

What Are the Major Differences Between a Formal and Informal Essay?

Students Are Asking the Question

The amount of times I’ve been asked the question, “ Are formal and informal writing the same ?” by my students is likely close to infinity at this point, so maybe putting it in writing will eliminate the question once and for all (probably not, but I can dream).

To start understanding the difference between formal and informal essay let’s focus on formal essays first.

What Is a Formal Essay?

Formal Type of Essay

A formal essay is a piece of writing that is used to inform or persuade your intended audience. Unlike a personal or narrative essay, formal essays tend to be more objective because they revolve around provable facts and examples.

Where Is It Typically Used?

Although most people think of secondary school when they hear the words ‘formal essay’, it has several purposes outside of academics; such as job applications, writing to a client, or reaching out to someone you don’t know.

Formal essays are often written in third person (e.g. he, his, him, himself, her, she, hers, it, its, itself, them, they, their, theirs, and themselves).

The tone should be objective, with little to no emotional input.

Unemotional Ladies

Ideas or perspectives are expressed with unbiased facts and powerful arguments rather than feelings or personal opinions.

Formal essays are outlined in a way that focuses on one clear argument or idea at a time which supports the thesis. A typical academic formal essay is set up in the following manner: introduction (2-4 sentences), body (2-3 paragraphs), and conclusion (2-4 sentences).

Use proper English with technical words related to the subject. Avoid the use of “I” and “you” (although these words can sometimes be used in an introduction or conclusion).

If you are struggling to wrap your head around the language used in formal writing, check out this short video by Smrt English that highlights the differences between formal and informal language and which style is most appropriate for formal writing.

Also, don’t forget to use proper punctuation and correct spacing between paragraphs.

Usually used to present facts and ideas from a critical point of view by analyzing the subject in detail or through argumentative dialogue.

The length is dependent on how long it takes to get your point across, but typically the body of a formal essay goes as follows: introduction, examples, explanation, conclusion tied to the thesis, and transition when necessary. However, if you are one of my middle/high school students, the answer is always FIVE PARAGRAPHS.

5 Tips to Writing a Strong Formal Essay

  • Keep your feelings out of it. Formal essays are objective and professional, so talking about how much you love or hate something should be left out altogether.
  • Organize your thoughts in advance by planning. Sure, it may take you more time to complete the essay if you spend time planning first, but being able to coherently express ideas requires careful attention to detail.
  • Use a plagiarism checker to make sure you don’t accidentally cheat or incorrectly cite sources. If you need a reliable method to ensure your content is 100% original, click here to find out more.
  • Read your paper out loud while editing/revising. You’d be surprised how differently sentences sound in your head compared to when you physically hear it.
  • Get ideas from peers on how to better structure your writing or just read this article about how to write a formal essay .

In need of a hands-on video that goes over the do’s and don’ts of writing an informative essay? Check out this video by EssayPro once you’ve finished here.

Now that we have formal essays under control, it’s time to move on to informal essays.

What Is an Informal Essay?

Informal Type of Essay

An informal essay is not as strict as a formal essay when it comes to formatting and the language used; instead, it’s written in a more conversational style. Informal essays can still be informative or reflect a certain perspective effectively, it’s just more loosely written.

Whether it is used to express personal views, political opinions, or to organize ideas, informal essays are usually written for pleasure.

Informal essays are often written in first-person (e.g. I, my, me, mine and myself) and sometimes second person (e.g. you, your, yours).

The tone tends to be more laid back and personal.

Asking for Opinion

It can be amusing, ironic, serious, thoughtful or casual.

Unlike formal essays that have traditional outlines, informal essays can be laid out however the author chooses. Although informal essays can still follow a formal format in terms of structure , they tend to not be so rigid.

Everyday words, contractions, and slang can be used in informal essays. Instead of saying, “To whom this may concern”, you can say, “Hey, this essay is for you, so you better pay attention.”

Still confused or not sure about what are the differences between a formal and informal essay in terms of language? Here’s a different video created by Learn Easy English which highlights the differences between the two and gives examples.

Although punctuation and grammar don’t technically have to be ‘perfect’, I recommend considering the audience before coming to a conclusion and how to move forward.

Informal essays are for entertainment, reflection, or for responding to your crazy aunt’s biased opinions in a way that a text message simply can’t. Be sure to look for inspiration from other essays if you start suffering from colygraphia.

FIVE PARAGRAPHS!…just kidding, informal essays can be as long or short as you want it to be. That’s almost the main difference between formal and informal essay.

5 Tips to Writing an Effective Informal Essay

  • Show your personality in your writing. An effective way to write an informal essay is to approach it the same way you would a conversation.
  • Use readable language. Don’t resort to a vernacular that is foreign to you, make it intelligible (see what I did there?).
  • Write an outline to better organize your ideas before writing. An outline can be a bubble map, a list of concepts you want to express, or the order in which you want to present your ideas.
  • Don’t be afraid to make grammatical mistakes! Remember, everyday language and slang are okay, so you won’t lose points for using ‘wadup’ or ‘that’s dope’ to express your ideas.
  • Cater your medium to the intended audience. If your presenting to a group or pitching an idea, consider using PowerPoint instead of reading out an essay. Having a lover’s quarrel? A letter is likely more effective at expressing your feelings than through an essay or PowerPoint presentation (can you imagine?).

Speaking of PowerPoints, if you are a teacher grading classwork or a student trying to pass their work through Copyscape, click here to learn about the 4 best ways to check a PowerPoint presentation for plagiarism.

Let’s Wrap it Up

The Main Difference Between Formal and Informal Essays

In order to understand what are the major differences between a formal and informal essay, you need to remember two words: friendly and official. If you aren’t able to figure out which word represents which type of essay immediately, please look at this graph to give yourself a visual.

Formal essays are official and informal essays are friendly.

Useful Resources

  • The main types of essay
  • Best way to write an essay in under 30 minutes
  • Planning an essay
  • Main 5 parts of an essay: easy guidelines for writers

Now that you have a clear understanding of the differences between the two, it’s time for the hard part: actually writing the essay. If you need free help rewriting sentences and verifying your essay is plagiarism-free, click here to learn more about Plagiarisma.

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What is the key difference between Formal and Informal essays?

  • Post author: Rajveer
  • Post last modified: March 12, 2023
  • Reading time: 7 mins read

You are currently viewing What is the key difference between Formal and Informal essays?

If you are on this page then I think you must have heard about these terms formal essay and informal essay. Basically, these are the two categories to differentiate in the essay. Whenever you are writing an essay, it will probably fall into one of these categories.

Essay writing is not a difficult task but when we talk about the difference between formal and informal essays then some beginners get confused with these two different types of essays. This article is specially written for those people who want to understand the difference between formal and informal essays.

If you are also wondering about the difference between formal and informal essays then you must read this article.

Formal Essays

Informal essays, 1. purpose of writing, 2. writing tone, 3. writing language, 4. writing characteristics, 5. structure of writing, 6. evidence for facts and data, final words on the difference between formal and informal essay, what is the difference between formal and informal essays.

A formal essay is one of the writing styles and categories in essay writing. A formal essay is written using a well-organized structure, vocabulary and punctuation. A formal essay is conducted with a formal tone and writing style and is more focused on giving readers a valuable perspective or solution.

A formal essay follows an academic and professional writing style. A formal essay does not contain informational words and the personal experience of the writer.

Informal essays tend to be more personal messages and conversations. Informal essays do not follow an academic and professional writing style and may include humorous words and personal opinions.

Writing an informal essay doesn’t require much topic research and grammar knowledge because it is more about just writing personal opinions.

Formal vs Informal Essays: The Key Differences You Need to Know

Both formal and informal essays are different categories of essay writing and they have some major differences. Below I have tried to write down some of the key points for the difference between formal and informal essays.

The purpose of formal essay writing is to present solutions and information for a specific topic. A formal essay includes a well-organized structure to represent logical arguments and thoughts.

Whereas an informal essay is a matter of expressing personal views and opinions on a specific topic.

The writing style and tone of both formal and informal essays are different. A formal essay is written in a professional manner. It excludes informal words and personal thoughts and focuses more on academic and professional writing.

Whereas an informal essay is more like a conversational message and may include some humorous words, and personal opinions.

A formal essay is written in formal language. It does not include personal expression or personal tone. While an informal essay may include informal language and words and personal thoughts and expressions.

Formal essay writing always includes only third-person pronouns. Some of the third-person pronouns are he, him, himself, she, her, herself, etc. While an informal essay mostly uses first personal pronouns. Some of the first-person pronouns are I, Me, My, We, Our, etc.

A formal essay follows an organized structure and focuses on easy navigation for readers to understand and connect with each paragraph. It includes typical academic content writing sections such as the introduction, main body and conclusion.

Informal essays, on the other hand, do not follow any structure. It can be flexible and the structure can vary from writer to writer. It is only focused on representing the idea and experience.

Formal essays usually require evidence for the statements, research, or data shown in the essay. Evidence and proof are not required in informal essays but sometimes you may need some proof to support your statement or idea.

Also Read: Guide for writing an essay fast and quickly

I hope the above key points helped you understand the difference between formal and informal essays. These are some key checks that you can use to identify whether an essay is formal or informal. Let me know if you still have any confusion

FAQ: Difference between Formal and Informal essay

Formal essays are written in a professional manner using good grammar, research, and evidence while informal essays are more like a conversational message.

Post author avatar

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How to write an informal essay

Ibrahim Akturk

  • April 6, 2022

An informal essay is quite different from other types of essays . In an informal essay, you’re writing as if you are talking to a friend. You do not need to engage in a strict  academic writing process , but you should still avoid sloppiness.

  • In a formal essay, you expresses your ideas quietly behind the words.
  • In an informal essay, you talk to the reader in a conversational manner.

Formal and informal essays

In order to understand the difference between a formal and informal essay more clearly, let’s look at the table below.

Now that we know the general rules and definitions of an informal essay, let’s continue with the steps to write a great one.

Choose an informal essay topic

This is generally the first step of any essay writing process unless you are pre-assigned a topic already. An informal essay gives you a great opportunity in this step; you can write an informal essay on almost any topic . Here are some tips for you.

Informal essay topic tips

  • Choose a topic you have knowledge and are excited about.
  • Find inspiration from your own personal experiences.​
  • Just think about what you like to talk about the most, and you have your topic. ​

When choosing a topic:

Put the list away for an hour after you’ve created it. Return to it later. Most probably, one topic will stand out to you more. Then, you can write about that topic. For this how-to guide, we are choosing the topic “ why I stopped eating meat ”.

Create an outline

An informal essay does not need to follow a strict structure . However, it should still be coherent. Therefore, your outline does not need to be strict either. Just create one to help organize your thoughts.

Example of an informal essay outline

  • Thesis statement
  • Referring to reader
  • Address to the reader
  • Concluding sentence

Informal essay outline best practices

  • Remember you still need to do research while writing an informal essay.
  • Put together your research results in your outline so that your writing process becomes way easier. ​
  • Make sure to detail each part of the essay before writing, so you can write much faster.​

Write an introduction

Now, you start the actual writing process. In the introduction of an informal essay, you can basically follow the traditional introduction guide . 

Informal essay introduction example

Informal essay introduction best practices.

Before writing an introduction, you must first create an idea, identify a purpose, and collect information for the project.  The introduction also should contain a thesis statement .

Remember this type of essay is characterized by the inclusion of the writer’s viewpoint on the chosen topic , so be sure to declare your stance clearly.

Write the body paragraphs

Informal essay paragraphs example, tips for informal essay paragraphs.

  • You can write the main body of your essay using cliches, idioms, and even jargon. Don't forget every paragraph needs a topic sentence .
  • This is not a particularly academic type of paper; therefore, avoid sentences that are too long and complicated.​
  • To create a connection with the reader, it’s important to use a relaxed tone, transition words , and transition sentences . ​
  • Simple, quick, readable sentences and the use of various intonations will provide the essay with the necessary emotional context.​
  • This is a basic rule: write in a language that your professor can comprehend. That is to say, even if this is an informal assignment, it should still be readable.​

Important tip

Write a conclusion.

In the conclusion paragraph , you will need to summarize your main points and make a clear final comment.

Informal essay conclusion example

Informal essay conclusion tips.

  • Don’t make your conclusion repetitive.
  • Just quickly list the key points of conversation to leave a lasting impact on the reader. ​
  • You want them to remember and think about what you’re saying. ​

5-Paragraph Informal Essay Example

Game of Thrones: A World of Fantasy and Intrigue

Introduction

Body paragraphs, key takeaways.

  • An informal essay is a type of essay that is written in a conversational style and often includes personal anecdotes and opinions.
  • To write an informal essay, you should choose a topic that you are passionate about and write in a voice that is natural and engaging.
  • Begin your essay with a clear introduction that hooks the reader and provides context for your topic.
  • Use personal anecdotes, humor, and other storytelling techniques to illustrate your points and engage the reader.
  • End your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your main points and provides a final reflection on your topic.

Ibrahim Akturk

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Guilford College Writing Manual

Informal vs. formal writing.

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At Guilford you will do both informa l and formal writing. Let's look at informal writing first. The phrase is actually a misnomer. "Informal writing" suggests writing that is casual, unimportant. The true situation is just the opposite. Informal writing may be the most important writing you do.

Informal writing encourages independent thought, enlarges your capacity to make connections, makes you aware of yourself as a learner, increases your confidence by giving you a chance to get your ideas right with yourself before communicating them to others, affirms the value of your writing voice, and can serve as a springboard for formal assignments.

Informal writing tends to be:

exploratory digressive searching speculative talky writer-based uncorrected

Types of informal writing: impromptu writing in class, field notes, journal entries, initial drafts of papers, imaginative writing projects your professors will assign.

Now let's look at formal writing.

  • << Previous: Types of College Writing
  • Next: Essay vs. Article >>
  • Last Updated: Dec 8, 2015 1:59 AM
  • URL: https://library.guilford.edu/writingmanual

What Is Informal & Formal Essay Writing?

Kat walcott.

Informal and formal essays are different in tone and structure.

Informal and formal essays differ in terms of context and style. During your educational career, you will craft mainly formal essays, which are research-based, factual and written in the third-person point of view. In contrast, informal essays, also known as personal essays, can be written in the first-person voice and tend to be subjective and opinion based.

Explore this article

  • Writing an Informal Essay
  • Writing a Formal Essay

1 Writing an Informal Essay

Use a relaxed and casual tone for informal essays. Unlike formal essays, which are often divided into sections and written in a specific writing style, an informal essay should reflect your opinion and sound like your voice. In an informal essay, use the pronouns "I" and "me." A passage in an informal essay may read: "I spent the last year traveling through Asia. I am sharing my story in hopes that it encourages others to go on adventures and explore the world." Though not common academically, informal essays are ideal for personal letters, blog posts and magazine or newspaper editorials.

2 Writing a Formal Essay

A formal essay is heavily structured; it includes cited research, has a clear introduction, body and conclusion and supports a stated thesis. This type of essay also employs a formal tone -- it is written in third-person. This is the type of essay you will be expected to write in an academic setting. For example, if you are writing an essay about the theory of evolution, introduce the topic broadly in the introduction, go into detail about the theory based on your research in the body paragraphs and then summarize your findings in the conclusion. Even if the essay you are writing is a persuasive piece -- one in which you try to convince the reader of your stance on an issue -- you still have to back up your arguments with researched facts.

  • 1 Paradigm Online Writing Assistant: Occasions for Informal Essays

About the Author

Based in Gatineau, Canada, Kat Walcott has been writing entertainment and informative articles since 2008. Her work has appeared in major publications including Her Campus, Equals6 and Uppercase. She holds an honors diploma in social science from Heritage College and is currently majoring in communication studies and minoring in sexuality studies.

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How to Write an Informal Essay With a Perfect Plan

Today, we are going to talk about the type of essay that differs greatly from other types of papers. It may be a surprise for you, but an informal essay is written usually for enjoyment. This doesn’t mean that this type of essay cannot be informative or persuasive, but it is less formal than a relaxed expression of the opinion, observation, or research. A good informal essay may have a relaxed style, but it has a strong structure, though this structure can be less strict than a formal essay has. An informal essay has a tendency to be more personal than a formal one, though both can express subjective opinions. In a formal essay, a writer is silently presenting his or her thoughts behind the words; at the same time, in an informal essay, the author is connected with the reader in a conversational style.

how to write an informal essay

How to Write an Informal Essay to Interest Readers

Before we are talking about how to write this type of paper, we should understand what is informal writing. Don’t worry if you are not sure what is an informal essay, as many students try to find the answer to this question. Informal writing is writing where you should reveal your ability to write informally and express your own point of view on an issue. If you write informally, try to express your own personality in the essay. Don’t worry about writing in academic style, but avoid sloppiness. Find an example of informal essay below and look through it to get a more detailed understanding of the requirements this assignment has. Our experienced team of writers is ready to assist you with academic tasks – just say, “ write my college essays “, and we’ll deliver exceptional results.

Many students may ask, “what is the difference between formal and informal essay?” The difference is in the style of writing or in how we use words to say what we want to say. Different situations require different ways of using words. The way we write in the academic or scientific purposes differs a lot from the way we write to a friend or a close person. Proper writing of the informal essay is to understand the features of the genre. Observance of the basic principles and recommendations on writing will create an interesting essay.

Get to know how to start an informal essay and what are the main stages of writing.

Steps for Writing an Informal Essay

  • Select the topic. You have a great opportunity to select any topic for your paper. An informal way of writing provides a great chance to write about whatever you want. Choose a topic that will be really interesting to you. The presence of a certain narrow topic that contains the problem and prompts the reader to thinking is a great choice. If there is no list of informal writing topics among which you can choose one, and only a general direction is given, then you need to take into account which audience the essay is written for. Variants can be different: your classmates and a teacher, the commission, the literary community, the employer. If the essay is written for handing in to the teacher, then it is necessary to consider what qualities will be evaluated. Proceeding from this, the topic should be chosen in such a way that it would be possible to show those abilities that the examiner is waiting for from the author: originality, the ability to logically construct sentences, literacy, professional qualities, etc. When choosing the topic for writing an essay from the proposed list, you should choose one which you have particular knowledge in.
  • Write an informal outline for essay. This part of a paper is important, because with an informal essay outline, your writing will be much easier. An outline is like a plan with which you will not forget to include all main points in your paper. It often happens that a person who has enough eloquence and the ability to express his/her thoughts on paper, has difficulty in starting the essay. Thinking about the introduction can take quite a long time, which greatly darkens the process of creative work. If you don’t know how to start an informal essay, ensure that you know what idea you want to communicate. Before you start writing an introduction, you need to formulate an idea, define a goal, and find sources of information for the work. It is important not to focus on the introductory part too long. Write an introduction including a thesis statement. Remember that the essay is distinguished precisely by the presence of the author’s view of the existing problem, his or her relation to the world, speech , and thinking.
  • Write the main body of your essay using cliches, colloquialisms, and even jargon, as the format of this paper allows you to write in this way. It is necessary to avoid complicated formulations or too long sentences. It is important to follow a laid-back style to establish contact with the reader. It is important not to overdo it, however, turning the essay into a substandard text full of slang. The correct emotional color of the text will be given by short, simple, understandable sentences, and the use of different intonations in sentences. Include a detailed analysis of the problem. Your own point of view needs to be argued on the basis of factual material.
  • Write a conclusion. Summarize everything that you have said before in your paper.
  • Remember relative brevity of writing. There are no restrictions on the number of pages, but the informal essay is usually small in volume. An informal paper has a free construction. The informal essay has a way of presentation that does not fit into any definite framework. The construction obeys its own logic, which the author adheres to, trying to consider the problem from different angles.
  • Proofread and edit your paper. Ask your friend to do it in order to find and correct more mistakes.

Informal Essay Sample

The following example of informal essay writing was created by dissertation writing services to help you handle your own paper. As this type of paper is not formal, you can find personal observations, opinions, or points of view. Use this informal essay sample as a collection of guidelines. The main thing is that this example is written in a relaxed manner, but it adheres to a particular structure. Short informal essay examples usually include the personal contact, and not the academic writing flow. You can find a subjective opinion in this type of paper, so you should write in this way as well. Our example of informal essay will help you understand how to write your own informal paper in order to get a high grade.

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what is informal writing

Useful Tips for Informal Essay Writing

  • Keep in mind that informal essays can be written in the first person, so using “I think that…” “In my opinion…” and “I believe…” are welcome.
  • Sentences of your essay should not be too long, especially in the case of run-on sentences. At the same time – they should not be too short. Varying your sentence lengths is a good practice.
  • Reread your essay at the end of your writing process. Ask yourself whether the tone is too formal or too informal. Make all necessary changes if needed.
  • Add personality to your essay! Don’t know what it means? Well, an informal essay gives you a chance to personalize your writing, using words and phrases which are used only by you. In this way, you will have a unique piece of writing on a particular topic. Be creative!
  • All statements that you include in your paper should be clear and realistic.
  • Despite the free composition, the informal essay must have internal unity, with consistency of the author’s statements expressing his or her opinion.
  • The author does not insist on his/her point of view, but uses a method as if inviting the reader to think about and discuss it.

Typical Mistakes for Writing an Informal Essay

  • The absence of links between the substantive parts of the essay: introduction and conclusion, and the main part of the essay with the conclusion.
  • Having proportionality of parts of the essay which should not be equal in length. The introduction and conclusion in the aggregate should be no more than one-third of the entire work. The main part is two-thirds.
  • Inability to strictly follow the theme of writing in the course of reasoning.
  • Inability to compositionally structure an essay in accordance with the theme and the main idea.
  • Vast amounts of unnecessary information in the introduction and conclusion. However, too short and too unreasonable a conclusion is also inappropriate. It must really summarize and sum up all the work. The absence of a conclusion is a serious logical mistake. The conclusion must be meaningful in accordance with the introduction, topic, and main body of the essay.
  • Absence of a problem in the introduction (this is the topic itself) and the formulation of a key thesis, which will be proved there.
  • Indistinct formulation of theses, making it difficult to integrate them into the logical structure of the work. If there are several theses, then there should not be a contradiction between the theses formulated in different parts of the paper.
  • Weak arguments. They are such if they do not prove or confirm, unconvincingly or superficially, the thesis.
  • Unreasonable repetitions of the same thoughts.
  • Errors in the division of the text into paragraphs and even the complete absence of paragraphs.
  • Inability to operate with abstract concepts.
  • The non-distinction between the concepts “example” and “argument,” and inability to formulate a micro-output, on the basis of an example, correlated with the thesis put forward.

Now you know what is an informative essay and how to write it correctly. You may also be interested in our guide about gender-sensitive language or informal report topics to complete your perfect paper.

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How to Write an Informal Essay: A Beginners' Guide

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A typical academic essay is serious writing. It is serious because it is often well-researched and written formally. The typical informal essay is the exact opposite of this.

how to write an informal essay

It is often not researched at all and is written in a casual tone. Furthermore, it is commonly written for enjoyment rather than serious discourse. And for that reason, it is a non-fiction essay that does not follow the writing conventions and is purely based on the author's reasons, reflections, and ideas.

In this guide, you will discover everything crucial you need to know to write a brilliant informal essay.

What is an informal essay?

An informal essay is an essay that is written for enjoyment rather than to argue or support a thesis with scholarly evidence. The essay is usually personal in nature and based on memory. A good example of an informal essay is – The happiest day of my life.

To write this essay, you simply need to recall the happiest day of your life and then write about it chronologically. As you can see, you don’t have to do much research to write an informal essay.

The fact that an informal essay is written for enjoyment does not mean that it does not have a set structure. The typical informal essay is a five-paragraph essay with three key parts – introduction, body, and conclusion. In terms of word count, the essay is often between 700 and 1,000 words long. The only thing informal about it is the fact that it does not need serious research. Moreover, unlike most essays, the informal can be written in a casual or conversational tone. This means that it can be written in the first and second person.

In most cases, informal essays are written for consumption by the author – to show their creativity, journal an experience, or release emotions through writing pieces.

Structure of an Informal Essay

Like most college students, you are probably used to following the five-paragraph essay structure that most professors recommend for formal essays . While using this structure to write your informal essay is okay, it is not necessary. The rationale for this is that the informal essay is informal and doesn’t follow any rigid structure.

Informal essays involve subjective opinions or ideas through prose. Some common examples of informal essays include impromptu speeches, diary entries, journals, social media posts, personal essays, and personal notes.

While the informal essay does not have a rigid structure or format, it must include four elements – topic, introduction, body, and conclusion.

The informal essay must have a title. It might be informal and without a structure, but it must have a title, and the title must be specific. By giving your informal essay a title, you are basically creating a compass that you can always refer to when writing your essay to ensure you are in the right direction. If, for example, you want to argue a point but are unsure whether it deserves to be in your essay, you can refer to your title to evaluate its importance. If the point helps to contribute to your title, you should include it in your essay. If it doesn’t, you should quickly ignore it.

2. Introduction

The informal essay must have an introduction . In other words, it must simply have a paragraph presenting what you will discuss in the body section. When writing the introduction of an informal essay, there is no specific formula to follow. The only thing that you must do is to make the introduction as interesting as possible. You can do this using a relevant quote, an interesting fact, or a related statistic.

In the body of your informal essay, you must go all out to tell the story you set out to tell in the introduction. You must do the title justice; you must make sure that anyone who reads your essay will agree that what you discuss or talk about in the body section is exactly what they expected. While there is no specific structure to follow when writing the body paragraphs of your informal essay, the best way to write them is chronological. This is because chronologically written paragraphs are easy to follow.

4. Conclusion

After writing your essay, you must write the conclusion part of your essay. The conclusion is usually the easiest part to write when writing an essay. This is because all you need to do is to summarize what you have written in the body section or body paragraphs. After doing this, you simply need to end your essay with a powerful closing sentence to complete it.

The Steps to Take to Write an Informal Essay

An informal essay is written in a conversational tone, which is laid-back, entails breaking academic writing rules, and sounds like everyday communication. You can use informal transition words, short sentences, contractions, common and cliché words, adages, expressions, and personal examples.

Here are the steps to take if assigned to write an informal essay.

1. Choose a topic

When you are asked to write an informal essay, you are normally allowed to choose your own topic. If this is the case, you should choose a topic that is very interesting to you. Because by doing so, the fact that the topic is interesting to you will result in you naturally writing an interesting essay. And interesting is what you want your informal essay to be to get a top grade.

Below the informal essay sample that follows this guide is a list of exciting informal essay topics. This list should inspire you to develop your own exciting informal essay topic; a topic that will make your essay interesting.

2. Create an outline for your informal essay

After choosing an interesting or exciting topic, you should create an outline for your informal essay . An essay outline is an essay writing plan. It highlights what you will include in the introduction section, the body section, and the conclusion section of your essay. To create an outline, provide a short summary of what you will include in your introduction paragraph, your three body paragraphs, and your conclusion paragraph.

But how do you know what you will include in your informal essay paragraphs? Well, it depends. If you are writing an informal essay based on a personal experience topic, you must recall as many details as possible about the experience to plan your essay. If you are writing an informal essay based on an academic topic, you will need thorough research to find as many details as possible about the topic to plan your essay.

3. Write the first draft of your essay

After creating a comprehensive outline for your informal essay, you should write the first draft of your essay. Do this by first writing your essay introduction. After writing your essay introduction, you should write its body paragraphs and the conclusion.

Writing the first draft of your informal essay after creating an outline for it should be a relatively straightforward job. You need to follow the outline like a map and use information from it to begin and structure your paragraphs.

The body paragraphs of an informal essay should each express your main message, perspective, or point of view. You can use persuasive writing skills to convince your readers. It would help to think of the topic as a forum thread where you defend your personal views against opposing opinions. Therefore, you must develop resilient supportive facts to defend your stance.

When developing the body paragraphs, you are allowed to use informal language. You should write short, clear, concise sentences, as long formulations are boring and misleading. You should center your discussions around some emotional vibe, express your personality, and write with vigor and respect.

Following your outline will make your informal essay well-organized and structured. However, it won’t guarantee flow in your essay. You will have to create a flow with your writing and transition words. Also, it won’t automatically give your essay a conversational and laid-back tone. You have to do this on your own using conversational words and writing.

Related Articles:

  • Using I in an essay.
  • How to format paragraphs for better readership.
  • Steps to come up with a great thesis statement.

4. Edit your essay

After writing the first draft of your essay, you should edit it thoroughly. Do this by reading it to eliminate ambiguous and unclear words and statements. After reading it to eliminate unclear words, you should read it to remove all types of grammatical and punctuation errors.

The next thing you need to do with regard to editing your essay is to review it one more time using Grammarly.com or similar software. This will help you to catch the errors you may have missed and to correct them.

After proofreading your essay using Grammarly.com, it will be ready for submission.

Informal Essay Example

Title: Benefits of living in a remote location They say no man is an island. While living in a community surrounded by friends and neighbors is a good thing with many benefits, living alone in a remote location also has its benefits. I have been living alone in a remote Pacific island for the last eight months, and the experience has been bliss. The island has a single cabin research station with basic amenities and a satellite connection. The nearest settled island is over 500 kilometers away. I had doubts when I first stepped on the island. I thought I wouldn’t last long. However, this has obviously not been the case. My stay on this island has been quite amazing. I have enjoyed many benefits, including improved mental health, improved safety, and a low cost of living. When I was living in Sydney, Australia, I was in a bad place mentally because I felt a lot of pressure to succeed. I also felt depressed and was frequently on depression medication. Living in a remote location has changed all this. I no longer feel any pressure. I no longer feel depressed or miserable. Just about every day is a good day nowadays. I wake up, check equipment, spend hours on the beach, and eat fresh food I grow in the station’s garden. I feel amazing mentally. I feel like a new person because life is so slow-paced on this island and devoid of the pressures of city life. Regarding safety, I believe living alone on a remote island is much safer than living in a big town or city. I feel safer on this island because there is literally no one around to cause me harm. I do not have to look over my shoulder when walking, sleeping, or doing anything on this isolated island. I also have no reason to watch the news, so I am not exposed to the constant reports of insecurity that city dwellers are exposed to. Not being exposed to constant reports of insecurity makes me feel even safer. Furthermore, in case of any emergency, there is an emergency number I can call at any time of the day to request urgent help. Lastly, regarding the cost of living, living isolated on a remote island is much cheaper than city or town living. I literally do not pay any rent on this island. I also grow much of my own food, and supplies are brought to me biweekly. Furthermore, I do not pay taxes and am not exposed to constant adverts that force city dwellers to make impulse purchases. And even if I want to purchase something, I wouldn’t because it probably wouldn’t have much use on a remote, isolated island. In conclusion, living in a remote location is very beneficial. If you choose to do this, you will be happier, safer, and less stressed financially. I can only equate it to living in paradise.

Informal Essay Topics

Below are some informal essay topics you can use as inspiration to come up with your own informal essay topic if asked to choose your own topic by your professor.

  • The best meals in our college cafeteria
  • Celebrities who are excellent role models
  • My religion and why I love it
  • My thoughts on marriage and divorce
  • The best day in my college life
  • The most embarrassing incident in my life
  • How parents can understand their children better
  • Why my mother is the most important person to me
  • The most famous African American inventors
  • Entrepreneurs who changed the world
  • Alcoholism among teenagers
  • Why home education is bad
  • Elon Musk and life on Mars
  • The Illuminati and other conspiracy theories
  • Legal migration and its benefits
  • Mental health in the USA
  • Communism and its benefits
  • The United Nations and its failures
  • Gender violence in California
  • Freedom of speech around the world
  • The effects of sanctions on Cuba
  • Education during the peak of the pandemic
  • East African culture
  • Why the death penalty should be abolished everywhere
  • Abortion and the right to life
  • What would I do if I became a millionaire overnight?
  • Why soccer is the most popular sport in the world
  • The pros and cons of video gaming
  • The Second Amendment and its protections
  • Why I would like to become a doctor
  • Why I love intermittent fasting
  • How I won a half marathon when undergoing chemotherapy
  • Lessons from my close friend who betrayed me
  • How I plan to win the next marathon
  • The car I love most
  • My dream job
  • Places I would like to visit
  • Why I love my step-dad
  • The last day at my first job

Dos and don’ts when writing an informal essay

  • Do write your essay in the first person. This will make it clearly informal and casual. It will also make it read much better.
  • Do write short sentences. Long sentences will make your essay difficult to read. In contrast, short sentences will make your writing easier to read and more casual (which is something you want when writing an informal essay).
  • Do rewrite your essay. After writing your informal essay, you should read through it to make it flawless. Do this by editing or rewriting anything that appears out of place in your essay.
  • Do proofread your essay. After you are done improving the flow of your essay, you should read it one more time to ensure it has zero grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors.
  • Do ensure your essay is chronological. While it is unnecessary to make your informal essay chronological, making it chronological will make it easy to read and understand.
  • Do use humor. It is okay to use humor in an informal essay. But you should only do it sparingly to avoid making your essay sound like a comedy script.
  • Do use conversational language. Using conversational language will make your article to read like a blog, which is a good thing when writing an informal essay. But do not go overboard with conversational language. It could make your essay difficult to understand.
  • Do read any informal essay examples. Before you write your informal essay, you should try to find and read informal essay examples online. This will help to make it easy for you to write your essay because it shows you the pattern you need to follow.
  • Do let your personality show. If you have a way of expressing your ideas, arguments, and so on, you should let your personality show in your writing. Let your writing be as unique as it can be. Do not try to make your essay look or even feel academic. Just write it as you would write a blog to be read by a friend. This will help make your essay delightfully informal.                                                                                                                     
  • Don’t forget to ensure a good flow throughout. While an informal essay doesn’t have a set structure, it must have a good flow. Therefore, you should ensure your essay is understandable throughout.
  • Don’t forget to edit your essay. The best informal essays are flawless ones. So after writing your essay, you should read it severally to edit it and ensure it is flawless.
  • Don’t make it formal. When writing informal essays, many students usually use the conventional academic language they use in formal essays. This is not right. You should try hard to make your essay as flawless as possible.
  • Don’t forget to include a thesis . At the end of your introduction, you should have a thesis statement, and your entire essay should be centered on this statement. A thesis is what distinguishes an informal essay from a blog article.
  • Don’t include weak arguments. It is important to ensure that your essay only contains strong arguments. Doing this will ensure you get a top grade. If you include weak arguments, you risk getting an average grade.

Parting Words!

Writing a good informal essay is not an easy job. It will require you to know the structure and style you must follow when writing an informal essay. Fortunately, you now know these two things. You also know exactly how to go about writing an informal essay. So go ahead and write yours. If you get stuck at any point, hire us to help you.

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You can hire professional writers to write excellent informal essays for you. Therefore, you should never hesitate to hire the best creative/composition writers to help you complete your informal essay assignment or to write it from scratch. Try our essay writing services today; you will not regret it.

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Writing style is how a writer expresses themselves. It includes spelling, grammar and punctuation, as well as aspects like sentence length and word choice. Style may vary with the type or purpose of writing. For example, you may come across academic writing , journalistic writing and business writing , all of which have different purposes and characteristics. Style may also vary with period (age) and nationality.

However, all styles of writing can be described as either formal or informal.

This page covers the key aspects of formal and informal writing styles, to enable you to distinguish between the two, and use them appropriately.

Understanding Formal and Informal Styles

What do we mean by ‘formal’ and ‘informal’?

Some definitions

formal , adj . stiffly polite rather than relaxed and friendly; said of language: strictly correct with regard to grammar, style and choice of words, as distinct from conversational

informal , adj. without ceremony or formality; relaxed and friendly; said of language, clothes, etc: suitable for and used in relaxed, everyday situations.

Source: Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, online edition.

Informal language and writing, then, is suitable for use every day .

It is, effectively, how we speak and write to our friends and families. It will include slang and colloquialisms (defined as phrases that are used in informal but not formal language). The recipient may tolerate some spelling and grammar mistakes.

We are therefore likely to use an informal writing style when composing emails and letters to friends and family. Blogs and other online copy are also often written in a more informal, conversational style.

Formal writing needs much more care.

It is the style of writing used for business and other official purposes. It needs to be correct in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation and usage.

A more formal style may also be appropriate for some letters, for example, if you are making a complaint to an organisation.

You may find our page on Writing Styles helpful. This is part of our study skills section, and summarises the main styles of writing that a student may encounter during their studies.

Characteristics of Formal and Informal Writing

When you look at a piece of writing, it is possible to distinguish whether it is written in a formal or informal style from several different aspects.

The main characteristics of an informal writing style are:

Colloquial language and terms. Informal writing is similar to a spoken conversation. It may therefore include slang, figures of speech, broken syntax, or asides.

A personal tone as if you were speaking directly to your audience (readers). Informal writing is often very conversational in style. The writer often uses the first person (I and we), and will also address the reader directly using the second person (you and your).

A simple structure and approach. As in conversation, both sentences and paragraphs tend to be shorter in informal writing. This is especially true in writing for the internet. Writers may also use incomplete sentences or ellipses (…) to make points.

Contractions and abbreviations within the text. Just as in speech, words may be shortened or abbreviated in informal writing. You will therefore see contractions (for example, I’m, doesn’t, couldn’t, it’s) and abbreviations (e.g. TV, photos) used much more in this form of writing.

Empathy and emotion. In informal writing, a writer will often show more empathy towards the reader. They may, for example, explain a more complex thought more clearly. This is linked to the more personal style in informal writing, which is more suited to conveying emotions.

The main characteristics of a formal writing style are:

A more complex structure. Formal writing often uses longer sentences. However, this is changing slightly with a growing understanding that clarity is important. In formal writing, you will also see a more structured approach generally, with points clearly introduced, explained and concluded. Formal pieces of writing are often carefully planned, revised and reviewed several times to ensure that they are as clear as possible, and make all the necessary points.

Complex should not mean incomprehensible

Some people equate formal writing with the use of longer words and complex sentence structures.

It is true that formal writing can be like that. However, this is neither essential nor desirable .

Any writing needs to convey your point to the reader as clearly as possible.

Using simpler language and sentence structures is usually a better way to do this. Long words do not make you sound cleverer, especially if you use them incorrectly.

See our page on Using Plain English for more about this.

An objective approach. In formal writing, the writer uses a more objective approach. Main points are usually stated and then supported with arguments. Formal writing is less likely to be emotional in style. It therefore avoids emotive punctuation such as exclamation points or ellipsis, unless they are being cited from another source.

Use of full words rather than contractions. As a general rule, no contractions should be used to simplify words in formal writing. Abbreviations should generally be spelt out in full when first used. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example, when the acronym is better known than the full name (BBC, ITV or NATO for example) or where it has become part of the language (for example, AIDS).

Writing in the third person. Formal writing is not a personal writing style. The writer often aims to sound dispassionate about the topic. It is usually not appropriate to use the first person (I or we) or second person (you). However, there are some exceptions to this (see box).

First or third person in academic writing?

In academic writing, it was traditional to use the third person and the passive voice. For example:

“The authors are not aware of any other studies that have used this approach.”
“The reagents were added together carefully to avoid any cross-contamination.”

However, this type of language is quite hard to read. Many academic journals therefore now encourage the use of the active voice, and the first person, but within a style that is considered formal.

Examples of this use of language are:

“As far as we are aware, no other studies have used this method.”
“In total, we enrolled 65 people onto the study over a period of six months. They completed the initial questionnaire during April 2021.”

When to Use Formal and Informal Writing

A formal writing style is not necessarily “better” or “worse” than an informal approach.

There is a time and a place for both. They have very different purposes. You should therefore take care to choose the most appropriate style to use. There are several factors that may affect your choice.

Two of the key factors dictating the choice of a formal or informal writing style are your audience and your medium.

You may therefore find it helpful to read our pages Know your Audience and Know Your Medium .

In general, writing for professional or work purposes is likely to require a formal style. However, you may be able to use a more informal style if you are writing to someone you know in person.

Emails also tend to use a less formal style than paper-based communications. However, this is changing slightly as more organisations use emails for all communications. You should therefore avoid the use of “text talk” or too much informality.

There is more about this in our page on Good Email Etiquette .

If in doubt as to how formal your writing should be, it is usually better to err on the side of caution.

Almost nobody is offended by too much formality. However, it is certainly possible to offend by being too informal in your approach.

Continue to: Know Your Audience Common Mistakes in Writing

See also: Active and Passive Voice Creative Writing How to Write a Report

informal essay or formal

What Is an Informal Essay?

An informal essay can refer to a number of different things, depending on the level of education a student has reached, and the type of course he or she is in, as well as the overall purpose of the assignment. In general, this type of essay is written as a reflection or a response to something, or is written as a type of informational piece about a personal experience. This type of essay may also be written as fiction . These are just a few of the many options for informal writing; an instructor will provide specific directions as to the focus and length of the essay.

A common misconception when students are assigned an informal essay is that important rules of spelling and grammar go out the window. It is still important to use proper, formal language when writing informally in an educational setting, unless the piece is fiction and the language is deliberate. The length of this type of essay can vary, but generally it is fairly short as compared to more in-depth pieces, such as research papers. It is still important to have a clear focus in any essay, and a cohesive idea of what the essay is about.

A reflective essay is one of the most common types of informal essays.

A reflective essay is one of the most common types of informal essays. These are often written in response to a certain experience, such as watching a film, reading a book, or taking a class. Students who participate in community events or volunteer days are often asked to write an informal essay about the experience as well. In addition, if a student attends an event for extra credit -- such as a lecture or a play, for example -- the instructor might require an informal essay in order to get the extra credit to ensure the student actually went to the event.

At any age level, it is important to adhere to basic spelling and grammar rules when writing an informal essay.

Many students will also assign compositions to students simply to test writing skills and to determine how much the students have learned. This is especially common in the younger grades when students are still learning basic writing skills. A teacher will often provide a simple prompt and encourage students to write an informal essay about it. Students might be prompted to write a fictional story, or they might be asked to tell a story about an experience they have had. Asking students to summarize what they have learned that day in school is another common essay writing prompt.

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Discussion Comments

@hamje32 - There are plagiarism check tools you can find online to verify that student submitted content is unique. Furthermore, the instructor should have prior examples of the student’s writing on hand, I would think. He can use that to compare against the submitted essay to ensure that the writing style is the same (assuming the originals weren’t plagiarized too).

@everetra - What do you think about instructors who use the informal essay as a means of checking up on whether a student has visited a play or event?

I think that with the advent of Internet essay mills offering up free essays online, it might be a way to game the system. What do you think? Students are pretty creative these days, after all.

@MrMoody - I’ve got another “dreaded” writing prompt for you – it’s the reflective essay based on reading a book, otherwise known as a “book report.”

Formal book reports may be a little different in this regard but not much in my opinion. The problem with most of these types of essays from what I’ve seen is that they are too subjective.

Students focus too much on how much they “like” or “feel” or “enjoy” the book, rather than on describing in enough detail what the book was about. Certainly you want some personal reflection, but every insight should be tied to specific details from the story. That’s my take anyway.

I used to teach English composition at the elementary school level. One of the most dreaded writing prompts I delivered to my students at the start of every school year was, “Write about what you did for the summer.” When I say dreaded, I mean I could hear the kids groan when I gave out the assignment.

I have no idea why I always used that prompt; part of it was laziness I think. However part of the reason was that it gave me an easy way to assess my students’ writing skills, as well as gain insights into their personalities which could help me tailor my lessons to the students needs.

The writing prompt was certainly nothing complicated. It needed to be a page or two in length, and have a clear beginning, middle and end.

Post your comments

A reflective essay is one of the most common types of informal essays.

  • Key Differences

Know the Differences & Comparisons

Difference Between Formal and Informal Writing

formal vs informal writing

Our choice of the form of writing mainly depends on the fact – to whom we are writing to? Secondly, the matter we are going to discuss in our write up also decides the writing style, because if we are writing on a serious matter, then an informal way of writing will not be considered suitable in that case. So, in this article, you will get to know the details of these two writing styles along with its do’s and don’ts.

Content: Formal Vs Informal Writing

Comparison chart, definition of formal writing.

A formal piece of writing is used when we do not have any idea of the person, or when we know the person but haven’t exchanged words, or we are not having familiar terms with the person who receives the letter. Here, we use formal language which indicates dignified and deferential regard for the reader. It is used when writing for academic, professional and legal purposes.

Formal Writing is a bit difficult as we have to consider some important points are to be kept in mind with respect to:

  • Word choice and tone should be polite.
  • No use of first and second person singular pronouns
  • Use of positive and literal language and academic vocabulary.
  • Avoiding repetition and over generalisation.
  • Use of proper spelling, grammar and punctuation
  • No use of contractions, cliche, colloquial diction and abbreviations
  • Sentences are fully elaborated and concluded.
  • Avoid use of jargons.
  • No emotional language
  • No statistics without proper reference.
  • Full of objectivity, as proper evidence, should be there to support your argument.

Definition of Informal Writing

The informal style of writing is one used for personal and casual conversation, wherein friendly and colloquial language is used. In an informal writing style, personal and emotional tone is used, and the reader is directly referred by the words ‘you’ or ‘your’. It is used when writing personal emails, text messages, letters to friends and family etc. It is a direct form of writing which uses:

  • Contractions, abbreviations and short sentences are used.
  • Use of ordinary, short and simple sentences.
  • Personal and subjective
  • Loosely structured
  • Use of first and second person pronoun.
  • Acceptable use of slang and cliche
  • Imperative sentences can be used

Key Differences Between Formal and Informal Writing

The differences between formal and informal writing can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

  • Formal writing is that form of writing which is used for the business, legal, academic or professional purpose. On the other hand, informal writing is one which is used for personal or casual purpose.
  • Formal writing must use a professional tone, whereas a personal and emotional tone can be found in informal writing.
  • In formal writing, use of slang is not at all common, whereas we normally use slang in informal writing.
  • When it comes to language, we use formulaic language in formal writing, which contain a set form of words. As against, informal writing is direct.
  • We use passive voice in a formal piece of writing. In contrast, in an informal piece of writing, we use active voice.
  • In formal writing, linking words are used, instead of conjunctions which are used in case of informal writing.
  • In formal writing, interjections are usually avoided, and so exclamation marks are not used. Conversely, in informal writing, interjections are commonly used.
  • In a formal piece of writing, when we refer to audience 1st person plural or third person singular is used. On the contrary, informal piece of writing, we use 1st person singular form to refer to the audience.

Both formal and informal writing is used in our day to day life but in different situations. We just need to think about the reader and the topic of your discussion, before choosing the writing style. When the topic is quite serious and objective, the formal writing style is suitable. It is also used when the write up is addressed to some respectable person or institution.

On the other hand, informal writing is best suited when you are communicating with your family, friends and acquaintances. Further, if the matter of discussion is not very serious, then also informal writing can be used, subject to, you are comfortable with the reader, in talking informally.

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Formal & Informal English

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Formal English: We use it when writing essays for school, cover letters to apply for jobs, or emails and letters at work.

Informal English: We use it with friends, children, and relatives.

The following list will help you to recognize the informal and formal ways of saying the same thing. The list is divided into sections of: verbs, transitions, emphasis words, abbreviations, and slang.

Verbs – Informal & Formal

Transitions – informal & formal, emphasis words – informal & formal, letter expressions – informal & formal, abbreviations – informal & formal, slang – informal & formal.

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should college essays be formal or informal Answered

I want to write humourous and somewhat informal essays for my college app. is that a good idea or should I stay away from informal essays?

II think informal essays are great. Such essays really show the personal characteristics of a person. I've recently written an essay on personal strengths, and I decided to take a chance and write an informal essay. I reviewed what essays other students are writing on the topic at https://samploon.com/free-essays/personal-strengths/ to understand how I should write about this and everyone was writing mostly formal papers. Since such essays are not scientific ones, I think using an informal style

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As others have offered, the style of these essays is up to you -- write in your own voice! Many people mistakenly believe, for example, that contractions are a red flag, but unless you actually speak without them, there's no reason you can't integrate them into your essays. My general rule of thumb is that someone should be able to pick your essay up off the street with no name on it and instantly know who to return it to. As others have also said, you'll still want to avoid expletives and any phrasing that you think could be reasonably misinterpreted as offensive.

In short, if you're formal, write formally. If you're humorous, write humorously. Don't try to cast yourself as what you think admissions officers want to see; just put your own best foot forward, and the essay should ring true. Best of luck!

Remember that college essay is supposed to talk about yourself and be deeply personal, as long as you do this effectively- the format should not matter as much. Just make sure that the essay is logically written and flows well.

It really depends. As long as you can ensure it comes across as humorous, it shows who you really are, and gives a real sense of what you can contribute to the college, I say go for it. Considering most essays won't be like that, it could be a breath of fresh air for the AOs. Good luck!

Edit: Schools like UChicago and Brown tend to like these especially!

Meh Uchicago Brown just have wacky prompts that lend to more humorous but no data or anecdotes Ive seen have indicated humor essays are better then formal essays.

I can't say for sure, but I know who can help you. I recently needed a dissertation help, since I could not write anything. I used where they wrote everything to me in a short time. I think if you write and ask, they will help you. Or just order from them.

oh i dont know

So informal as in a chat between friends works well but if your friend group cusses 24/7 don't include that for obvious reasons. But the essays purpose is to show who you are so the formality doesn't matter if done well. Also you may not be a great formal writer so just play to your strengths. BUT if the prompt is write a tragic circumstance (not gonna happen but shows a point) don't be humorous then.

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Thomas L. Friedman

Trump’s G.O.P. Is a Confederacy of Fakers

Donald Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham in front of several American flags in January 2023.

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist

I’ve got a suggestion for the next Trump-G.O.P. fund-raising scheme. You know how sports memorabilia stores sometimes sell basketballs autographed by an entire N.B.A. team? Well, I was imagining that Donald Trump could sell white flags at $1,000 a pop that say, “We surrendered Ukraine to Russia,” autographed by him and the House and Senate MAGA sycophants he’s assembled to deny Ukrainians the weapons they need to stave off Vladimir Putin’s onslaught.

For an extra $500, you could get a white flag autographed solely by Trump and J.D. Vance and emblazoned with Vance’s immortal words, “ I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine .” Or one signed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, big enough to sum up his worldview: I was for Ukraine aid until I was against it, but I could be for it again if Trump is not against it. This is a matter of principle for me. Either way, it’s all Biden’s fault.

And then the ultimate collector’s item. For an extra $1,000, a giant white surrender flag, made from the softest Sea Island cotton, signed by Lindsey Graham, that says: “I gave up the principles of John McCain and a free Ukraine because Trump told me to. But I got a round of golf at Trump’s West Palm Beach course. Can I still be on ‘Meet the Press’?”

The last gift comes with a pair of Trump’s new branded tennis shoes, guaranteed by Trump and personally tested by Graham, to be the fastest shoe on the market to run away from any ally or foe — or anything principled that you’ve ever said.

The possibilities are endless, because Trump’s G.O.P. has become bottomless. It now manifests an infinite willingness to engage in any form of crow eating, bootlicking, backtracking and backstabbing to stay in his good graces, no matter how crackpot, selfish or un-American his demand. Trump decides to just dump Ukraine? Bye-bye, Zelensky. Trump decides to toss aside months of bipartisan work to forge a grand bargain on immigration reform? Gone — no questions asked!

I’ve never seen so many people in one party behave with so little respect for themselves or the nation’s interests at one time.

Let’s take a look at Ukraine. I’m not for an endless war in Ukraine. We should always be probing for the possibility of a negotiated settlement between Kyiv and Moscow. This year has shown America and Europe two things: The West cannot and will not just keep pouring money into Ukraine to fund a stalemate, and an outright victory by Ukraine or Russia seems more remote than ever.

But the way to get a decent negotiated settlement is not by cutting off aid to Kyiv cold turkey, the approach that many House Republicans and some Senate colleagues are essentially advocating. That is not only shameful but also strategically insane. The only way to get a deal now or down the road — a deal that is in Ukraine’s interest and in the interest of the West — is by reaffirming our military and economic assistance to Kyiv while doubling down on diplomacy to end the war.

Yes, it’s a tricky business; ending wars always is. There will have to be some hard compromises by both sides. For me, that means, at a minimum, Ukraine comes out of this war with a clear pathway to membership in the European Union. If Ukraine, with its advanced army, giant agricultural breadbasket and flourishing young tech sector, can one day be admitted into the E.U., it makes a whole-and-free Europe closer to becoming a reality and the E.U. much stronger as a player on the world stage — promoting democracy, free markets, pluralism and the rule of law. That’s good for us.

And if the price of that is that Ukraine has to cede some of its Russian-speaking eastern provinces and has to rely for now on informal U.S. and European security guarantees and continued arms — instead of formal NATO membership — we’ll deal with it. Because a Ukraine in the European Union, even without some of its eastern provinces, would become a real powerhouse .

Putin’s Russia, not so much. Putin might be aiming to put a nuclear weapon into space and spending over $100 billion on the Ukraine war, but as his infrastructure on the ground crumbles, more and more Russians are freezing at home this winter.

“Cities are freezing. Who is guilty?” said Boris Nadezhdin, the long-shot presidential candidate who tried running against Putin. The Financial Times recently quoted him as saying, “The huge amounts of money that have been spent and planned for the special military operation could have been invested in improving the quality of life of my fellow citizens.”

No decent deal for Ukraine will be possible if we let Trump and his party just pull the plug on aid to Kyiv now. As my New York Times colleagues in Ukraine reported last week, the Ukrainian Army is now “engaged in a desperate fight to hold back the Russian onslaught. … Across the entire 600-mile-long front, Ukraine is short on ammunition without renewed American military assistance, and it is struggling to replenish its own depleted forces after two years of brutal fighting.”

And have no doubt, if we did just surrender Ukraine, Putin’s next destination could be the Baltic States or Poland. But both are in NATO, which means we are obligated under Article 5 of the NATO treaty to defend them with our own soldiers and treasure. So surrendering Ukraine now could be one of the most expensive things we could do.

As Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, recently observed about Putin in The Financial Times: “With no checks on his capacity to make fatal mistakes, an aging Russian ruler surrounded by sycophants may embark on more reckless moves in coming years than anything we’ve seen so far. If the Kremlin believes that no major Western power has the resources and will to fight for minor allies like the Baltic States, it may be tempted to test NATO’s Article 5 commitment to collective defense.” Especially when Trump’s rhetoric “creates a dangerous illusion that America would not intervene if Putin uses military force to divide NATO,” he added.

We are watching two schools of U.S. foreign policy play out over Ukraine. One is the classic U.S. great-power approach, led by a president who grew up in the Cold War and built on a bedrock of American values and interests that have served us well since we entered World War II: We and our allies will negotiate with Putin, but only from a position of strength, not weakness. And our strength derives not just from our money and weapons but also from the fact that Biden has been able to assemble a Western coalition on Ukraine that amplifies our and our allies’ strength tenfold.

Trump, by contrast, often behaves as if he learned his world affairs not at Wharton but by watching World Wrestling Entertainment. So much of what he does is purely performative; it’s about looking strong, about talking tough and about fake body slams, in which everyone is fooled except our rivals.

For example, Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, claiming it was a giveaway by Barack Obama. But he did it with no diplomatic plan to secure a better deal and no strategic plan or allies to confront Iran if it exploited Trump’s move by pushing ahead toward a nuclear bomb. So Iran, which, under Obama, was being kept about a year away from having enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb, is now just a few weeks away . That’s what performative diplomacy gets you.

And that was before our allies had truly gotten to know how little Trump knows or values the Western alliance. A second time around, no one would trust him, so Trump’s “America First” strategy would almost certainly end up an “ America Alone ” strategy. If you think helping Ukraine is expensive today, try defending America against Russia, China and Iran — all by ourselves.

I am afraid of what this future holds, my fellow Americans, because Trump is a fake, Lindsey Graham is a fake and the G.O.P. has become a cult with no coherent platform other than what side of the bed Trump woke up on, meaning it’s a fake. None of them will fight for anything any longer — other than staying in Trump’s good graces by saying whatever he tells them to say.

They are all trapped in a performative doom loop that has nothing to do with acting on our real interests. It’s only about performing for Trump and for his base to get more clicks, to get more donations, to get more votes, to get elected and then perform again for more clicks. Rinse and repeat — the actual world be damned.

It is all fake. Only our enemies are not fake.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , X and Threads .

Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Opinion columnist. He joined the paper in 1981 and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Award. @ tomfriedman • Facebook

IMAGES

  1. The Difference Between Formal and Informal Writing

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  2. Formal vs. Informal: Best Writing Practices

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  3. Formal Essay: What it is and How to Write it

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  4. 10+ Formal Writing Examples

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  5. The Difference Between Formal and Informal Language

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  6. What Are the Major Differences Between a Formal and Informal Essay?

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COMMENTS

  1. Definition and Examples of Formal Essays

    "An informal essay is personal, revelatory, humorous, and somewhat loosely structured" ( Readings for Writers, 2016). (Dimitri Otis/Getty Images) By Richard Nordquist Updated on March 26, 2018 In composition studies, a formal essay is a short, relatively impersonal composition in prose.

  2. What Are the Major Differences Between a Formal and Informal Essay?

    An informal essay is not as strict as a formal essay when it comes to formatting and the language used; instead, it's written in a more conversational style. Informal essays can still be informative or reflect a certain perspective effectively, it's just more loosely written.

  3. What is the key difference between Formal and Informal essays?

    Whereas an informal essay is a matter of expressing personal views and opinions on a specific topic. 2. Writing Tone The writing style and tone of both formal and informal essays are different. A formal essay is written in a professional manner. It excludes informal words and personal thoughts and focuses more on academic and professional writing.

  4. Writing a Great Informal Essay (Steps & Examples)

    An informal essay is quite different from other types of essays.. In an informal essay, you're writing as if you are talking to a friend. You do not need to engage in a strict academic writing process, but you should still avoid sloppiness. In a formal essay, you expresses your ideas quietly behind the words. In an informal essay, you talk to the reader in a conversational manner.

  5. Informal vs. Formal Writing

    At Guilford you will do both informal and formal writing. Let's look at informal writing first. The phrase is actually a misnomer. "Informal writing" suggests writing that is casual, unimportant. The true situation is just the opposite. Informal writing may be the most important writing you do. Informal writing encourages independent thought ...

  6. Formal Essay Format, Types & Example

    These four types of formal essays are: The expository essay. The compare and contrast essay. The cause and effect essay. The argumentative essay. Expository essays define or explain a concept to ...

  7. How to Write a Formal Essay

    An informal essay is a type of essay written more for enjoyment with the use of vivid expressions and abbreviations. Grammar rules and punctuation are not always strictly observed. Table of contents hide 1 How to write a formal essay with a proper structure 2 Steps for writing a formal essay 3 Formal essay example

  8. How to Write an Informal Essay: A to Z Guide to Succeed in Writing

    The informal essay format is impossible without this essay part. The body is the largest part because its purpose is to explain everything you did not manage to say in the introduction. As been said, the introduction keeps the intrigue, and the body works as a guide that recalls historical events and facts about the place in the smallest details.

  9. How to Write an Informal Essay

    In a formal essay, an essayist is quietly introducing their contemplations behind the words; however, in an informal paper, the writer is associated with the reader in a conversational style. What Is an Informal Essay? An informal essay can be about a broad scope of subjects, from the profoundly close to personal to the ostensibly political.

  10. Formal vs. Informal Writing

    Informal writing can range from letters and personal essays to emails. Some elements present in formal writing are still crucial for informal writing, which is mainly clarity.

  11. What Is Informal & Formal Essay Writing?

    Informal and formal essays differ in terms of context and style. During your educational career, you will craft mainly formal essays, which are research-based, factual and written in the third-person point of view. In contrast, informal essays, also known as personal essays, can be written in the first-person voice ...

  12. How to Write an Informal Essay

    In a formal essay, a writer is silently presenting his or her thoughts behind the words; at the same time, in an informal essay, the author is connected with the reader in a conversational style. How to Write an Informal Essay to Interest Readers

  13. Formal vs. Informal: Best Writing Practices

    The main difference between informal and formal writing is that whereas informal writing is less professional, formal writing, on the other hand, is professional is usually used in writing business letters and other academic papers such as essays, research articles, essays, and dissertations. Informal writing could be used in writing friendly ...

  14. Informal Essay: Steps, Tips, Outline, Example, Topics

    1. Title The informal essay must have a title. It might be informal and without a structure, but it must have a title, and the title must be specific. By giving your informal essay a title, you are basically creating a compass that you can always refer to when writing your essay to ensure you are in the right direction.

  15. Formal and Informal Writing Styles

    formal, adj. stiffly polite rather than relaxed and friendly; said of language: strictly correct with regard to grammar, style and choice of words, as distinct from conversational. informal, adj. without ceremony or formality; relaxed and friendly; said of language, clothes, etc: suitable for and used in relaxed, everyday situations.. Source: Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, online edition.

  16. What Is an Informal Essay? (with pictures)

    An informal essay is a piece of writing that adopts a relaxed, personal tone, akin to a thoughtful conversation with a friend. It allows the writer's personality to shine through, offering anecdotes and reflections without the strict structure of formal essays. It's a space where creativity flows and rules are bent.

  17. Difference Between Formal and Informal Writing

    Definition of Informal Writing The informal style of writing is one used for personal and casual conversation, wherein friendly and colloquial language is used. In an informal writing style, personal and emotional tone is used, and the reader is directly referred by the words 'you' or 'your'.

  18. Writing an Informal Essay

    The informal essay can be much less restricted by structural conformities and much more personal in both approach and expression. Allow your personal opinions and mode of expression to show through in an informal essay, rather than trying to sound 'academic'. Your own 'voice' should be clearly audible in the informal essay and you ...

  19. Formal & Informal English · engVid

    Formal English: We use it when writing essays for school, cover letters to apply for jobs, or emails and letters at work. Informal English: We use it with friends, children, and relatives. The following list will help you to recognize the informal and formal ways of saying the same thing. The list is divided into sections of: verbs, transitions, emphasis words, abbreviations, and slang.

  20. should college essays be formal or informal

    Or just order from them. So informal as in a chat between friends works well but if your friend group cusses 24/7 don't include that for obvious reasons. But the essays purpose is to show who you are so the formality doesn't matter if done well. Also you may not be a great formal writer so just play to your strengths.

  21. READING: ESSAYS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES Flashcards

    Formal essays usually have a formal manner in them. If you were to speak the essay out loud, then your audience would probably get the feeling that this was a very important essay, and seriousness would probably be found. In an informal essay, there would often be slangs, unprofessional use of wording, that kind of stuff.

  22. FORMAL ESSAY and INFORMAL (FAMILIAR) ESSAY

    Under the heading of style, essays may be classified as either formal essays or informal (familiar). I. Formal essays Basic elements of a successful formal essay: A strong thesis statement with logical supporting points. Body paragraphs that discuss the supporting points in the order they are mentioned in the thesis statement.

  23. Formal and Informal Essay Example For FREE

    Formal and Informal. Robin Phillips Assignment: The Learning Autobiography Formal and Informal Learning Date: August 26, 2010 I started my formal education in elementary school when I traveled with my parents. My father was in the United States Army, and I lived in Germany for three years. Then we moved to Japan where I lived for four years.

  24. Connecting formal and informal workplace learning with teacher

    Purpose. It is vital in today's society that teachers are proactively involved in educational change. Given that proactive motivation is a critical driver of proactivity, this study aims to investigate how teachers' formal and informal workplace-learning experiences were connected with their proactive motivations to implement educational change.

  25. Opinion

    The last gift comes with a pair of Trump's new branded tennis shoes, guaranteed by Trump and personally tested by Graham, to be the fastest shoe on the market to run away from any ally or foe ...