Everyone knows that you should write your term papers differently than your Facebook posts, and that your journal submissions should be written differently than newspaper columns. What exactly are the differences between casual and academic writing? Between formal and informal writing?

the biggest difference

The most important difference between informal writing and academic writing is style. That is, informal writing does not require you to adhere to any published style guide. Academic writing, or any formal writing, requires that you adhere to a style guide. Some schools and teachers will go so far as to specify which style guide to use.

What is a style guide?

A style guide is a manual, or document, that specifies a set of rules and regulations followed by writers to facilitate clear communication. The EzineArticles.com guide is a web page that tells you how to write articles to be included in the EzineArticles directory, for example. Each school and corporation can have their own custom style guide.

However, there are main style guides.

1. The Chicago Manual of Style it was one of the first style guides published in the United States. Currently (as of 2010) in its 16th edition, this style guide was first published in 1906. People often refer to it as “Chicago style”, but people also refer to it as CMS or CMOS .

2. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association it is in its sixth edition (as of 2010). This style guide was developed to make papers easier for teachers and students to read, thereby increasing comprehension. APA style requires only two fonts in an article, and the body of the article must be written in 12 point Times New Roman. Underlining, bold, and italics are allowed in some places.

3. The elements of the style it was written to help people write clearly. While the book has its critics, it is one of the shorter style guides.

4. The MLA Manual of Style, 3rd Edition, is the style guide of the Modern Language Association. First published in 1985, this manual is used by many universities, colleges, and students.

5. Microsoft wrote The Manual of Style for Technical Publicationsand this document is used for Microsoft internal and external documentation.

Common style guide conventions vs. informal writing

contractions

In general, it’s okay to use contractions (as if they were) in informal writing. Academic writing requires writing both words.

Technical terms

If you are writing informally to a group of people in the same field as you, you may often use technical terms and never explain them. If you’re writing to a group of people who have nothing to do with your industry, try eliminating technical words altogether. If you are writing academically, you should explain the term the first time you use it.

Active passive

This is no different between informal and academic writing. Most of the time, active sentences are better. Both the APA and the Chicago style guides agree with this.

grammatical person

Grammatical person is point of view, or you may have heard it expressed as first person, second person, third person, and fourth person. The first person perspective contains many “I” or “we” statements such as “I fed the dog.” The first person is the writer’s perspective. The second person is you, the person the writer is writing to. The third person is associated with pronouns like he, she, it, and they. The third person is not me (the writer) or you (the reader). Sometimes academics use fourth person sentences like “One should always behave when he is in public.”

Informal and casual writing uses the first, second, and third person point of view, as appropriate. While academics often write in the fourth person, I have yet to find a basis for that style of writing in style guides. Style guides make it easy to write clearly and fourth person, one person statements are anything but clear.

The grammatical person needed for a sentence often depends on whether the sentence is active or passive.

Quotes

Academic writing requires citations. If you say that “X is true”, you must cite where you found that statement. If you created that statement, your words should clearly show it.

sentence length

Casual writing tends to have short sentences. (Informal bad writing has running sentences.) Academic and formal writing uses longer sentences. However, take the head. The goal of any writing is to get a point across, and if your sentence is too long, you’ll defeat that purpose.

Colloquial expressions and clichés

While “awesome,” “bombs,” “bee’s knees,” “kids,” “nose to grindstone,” and “dude” permeate Facebook, these words and phrases aren’t used in academic writing.

abbreviations

All your friends may know what LOL (and in the case of the ferret community, DOL) is, but any time you use an abbreviation in an academic paper, you must first write it down and connect it to the abbreviation so people know who you are. talking about.