Formal vs. Informal Writing: Who's the Audience?

Formal vs. Informal Writing: Who's the Audience? Before you start writing an article, one of the first things you need to ask yourself is "Who's my audience?" Pinning down your target audience is a crucially-important step in your effort to communicate clearly. Miss the mark by not taking a topic seriously enough and you run the risk of alienating that core audience. On the other hand, take too formal of an approach to a lighthearted topic and you'll appear rigid and unemotional. So, you really have to know exactly what group of people you're writing the article for to ensure you communicate in the best possible way. Watch this video to discover the differences between formal and informal writing to help you gear your writing in the right direction. Downloadable Versions: Formal Writing Tends to be complex and thorough Takes on more serious topics in a very direct way Uses longer sentences and each of the main points are introduced, elaborated on and concluded Uses full words, not contractions or abbreviations States the main points objectively and confidently and also offers a full support of arguments Not a personal writing style, there are very few emotions included Informal Writing Tends to be more conversational Uses figures of speech and slang Keeps it short with contractions and abbreviations Conveys a more personal, emotional tone Speaks directly to the audience by using words like "you" and "your" Uses shorter sentences Think about your audience and the topic of your article. Adopt a formal style when you're taking on a more serious, objective topic. And write informally when you're comfortable and familiar with your readers. In the end, you have to make the decision of which style of writing is best for your articles. It's in your hands now, so go write and submit a brand new set of quality, original formal or informal articles. Then, revisit this post online to share your experiences. To Your Article Writing Success & Passion! Penny, Managing Editor http://Blog.EzineArticles.com/ http://EzineArticles.com/ PS: Never miss another EzineArticles video update! All you have to do is simply head on over to our YouTube channel and subscribe to receive updates when our new videos come out. You can also find a full archive of our previously-released videos there too. EzineArticles Member Endorsement "My website traffic continues to grow almost exponentially month to month." My website traffic continues to grow almost exponentially month to month, and my links are at about 7,000+. And the best of all - I am showing up on page one of most of the search engines now for many of my key search words. Even when I slow down with my writing the links just continue to grow, mainly because people are still reading the older articles even when I'm not writing new ones. Alan Boyer leaders-perspective.com