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You need to know tone: Informal vs. Formal


You need to know how to make an entrance whether it be formal or informal or a bit of both like in this video.

Let's now go to our next principle of effective writing - considering tone.

I. Okay, so what is tone?

Tone is oftentimes referred to as the writer's voice. For our purposes, we want to be able to distinguish when a writing is formal or informal because it will help improve our writing.

II. The type of writing determines tone.

Remember look to see the type of writing and that will determine tone.

Here are 3 types of writing that my class is doing now:: summary/response, integrated timed writing, and research-based persuasive essay

Let’s look at several types to see what the tone of those writings would be.

1.So what about timed writings, writings for a test like TOEFL? Are they formal or informal?

You can know the answer by just asking "do they want you to use another source to write?"

In the independent writing for TOEFL, you can't use another source so it's informal. In the integrated writing, they make you use other sources. You have to read and listen to sources they give you so it is formal.

2.What about the summary/response?

For summary/response writing, the summary is typically formal because you are using an outside source and the response is informal because you aren't using an outside source.

3. For research-based writings, the tone is obviously formal because you are taking the information from outside sources.

Let's now look at what informal tone is.

Informal tone is often called subjective tone.

The goal is to share personal thoughts and feelings. Often the writer will pick one moment in time to write about in each paragraph and in so doing, the writer will make it more interesting.

It is similar to a scene in a movie. Watch this beginning of a class from the movie, the Great Debaters, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuRQDrySOVQ

The movie was based on a true story and this scene is one moment in time. It is on the first day of the debate class but not about the whole class; it's about the beginning of that class. The professor stands in a chair and quotes a famous poem by Langston Hughes. He is dramatic in his voice and slows down and speeds up for effect.

Good scenes in movies are one moment in time and stir your emotions. You don't have to stir the audience's emotion in academic writing but you can quote others and you do want to describe one moment. What do I mean by quoting? You can use dialogue in your writing.

To get an idea on what that one moment looks like, think of your favorite scenes in movies and watch them.

Here are a few of my favorite movie scenes:

So think of your favorite scenes in movies and think about what the one moment is and the dialogue, the writing, in that scene and then start reading and looking for examples in writing.

Now that we have an idea of the informal tone is, let's now look to what formal tone is.

Formal tone or objective tone is usually used to present the writer as not involved, neutral.

Authors will write in first person in objective narration when they have participated in the events. However, they won’t give their personal reactions to events.

Now, in formal tone, the writer does want you to feel; the writer wants you to learn. The goal is to give new information and not opinions. The writer must remain not involved and neutral. We will talk more about this tone later.

Let's compare the two tones on a scale to see a little more of what each what looks like.

* _____________________________________________________________________*

informal formal

The goal is to create emotion no emotion/neutral

through description/example give information

use of quotes through formal quotes

repeated idea/theme studies/statistics/

repeated vocabulary/structure examples

Now that we know a little of what informal and formal tone are. Why do we care? If we don’t understand tone, we won’t know the expectations and so it will have a negative effective on our writing.

We will get more into tone and its importance later but first we will look at the organization of writing.

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