The Level of Formality in Your Writing and Your Audience
If you are into writing, you should know the flow of your piece. If you are writing news story, reports, thesis, reviews, presentations and speech then you should aim a formal and piece of work. If you are into writing a novel, any stories, essays, and notes, then it's a bit of informal when it comes to its sequence. There are also contents that have different variations or what we call it types in writing. It can be fictional or non-fictional. It depends upon the writer.
However, the level of formality of a piece of work can be determined by many things. Most important, still, are the expectations of your audience. Always put up into your mind that your readers are the ones who will judge your content if they are really captivated by your writings or whether they will feel bored and skip it while reading.
If you are writing a cover letter for a job application, what level of formality will the company's HR be expecting from it? How about an email to a friend or an academic essay? A potential employer will most likely expect your letter to be formal, while a friend is naturally expecting something casual.
Here are some tips and facts suggested by HG Nadel that you should be able to know as a writer in order to please your readers as well as it fits to the kinds of audiences that you will have:
Casual Writing. Casual writing, also called informal writing, gives you the license to use the language in a less-rigid manner, largely reflecting the way you speak. Slang terms, contractions and other non-standard English forms are allowed. Letters to friends, commenting on blogs and other non-official forms of writing can be accomplished in a very casual manner without any troubles.
Semi-Formal Writing. Semi-formal writing blends the easy-going manner of casual style with the assertive structure of formal prose. It is best employed when you're not very comfortable writing in a formal voice, but don't want the excessive nonchalance of casual form. A good example of this is when sending an email to a close family member about a serious topic - it's inappropriate to be formal, but the subject simply isn't casual.
Formal Writing. Formal writing is the strictest of these three styles, with a set of rules and conventions that need to be followed to the letter. Language has to be strictly textbook and to the point. Most people expect business correspondence to be laid out in such a manner, as well as discussions of a legal nature, among others. It should be stated in a more professional way and is therefore properly made.
If you already know the difference of writing any of these styles, then you should apply it to whatever kind of piece you will have to write. The next thing you should also bear in mind is the structure of your content or if it has any grammatical errors and if it is properly formatted.
If you're having trouble determining whether your text adheres to proper standards of formality, check in with your grammar checker, as it can take that factor into consideration when running through your work.
HG Nadel is the owner of the leading acting Institution in personal growth for children. Nadel was born in Paris and has spent most of her adult life in the United States. She began her professional career as a SAG/AFTRA. Nadel has written numerous screenplays, but her first love is novel writing. She is known as the author of Eternal love story. This is the kind of story that you sink down into and read in only a handful of settings. Her expertise in young adult drama has allowed her to write captivating coming-of-age stories in both English and French.