Formal Writing - Learning English

Writing and speaking in English are much different.  Often students learning English hear words and phrases in conversation and assume they are acceptable in writing, which is not true.  To improve your writing it is necessary to learn how to write in a formal manner.
Formal Writing - Learning English
 
Formal writing is important for academic and business situations.

The following are tips on writing more formally:

• Do not write in the first person
  

Formal writing should be in the third person.
First person pronouns include I, my, we, our, us,  etc.

Example:              I believe dogs are better than cats.
Correction:           Dogs are better than cats.

• Write out contractions in full
  

Error:                    Don’t, won’t
Correction:           Do not, will not

• Write out numbers
  

Generally numbers below 10 are written and numbers above 10 can be shown as numbers.
Examples:        There are three children living in the house.
   The population of the town is 15, 000.

• Do not abbreviate
  

The first instance of a word should be spelled in full, and often it may be abbreviated afterwards.

• Do not use clichés
  

Clichés are unoriginal and redundant.

Here is a list of informal words and their formal translations:

Informal	Formal	Example
So	Very, Extremely	The movie was so good. The movie was very good
Of course	Clearly, Evidently	Of course it had rained. Clearly it had rain.
Just	Simply, Only	There are just three students today. There are only three students.
Kind of, Sort of	Somewhat	He kind of looks like his brother. He somewhat looks like his brother.
Got to, Have to	Must, Need to	Ive got to finish my project. I need to finish my project.
Used to	Accustomed to	I am used to the cold