Academic Writing [antikvár]

1. STYLE: FORMAL AND INFORMAL LANGUAGE Whenever one sets out to write something, he has to decide on the purpose and audience of the particular piece of writing. Everything else concerning form and content will automatically result from these two factors. If, for instance, one wants to inform his mother that he has gone to do the shopping (purpose: inform, audience: family member), then the most probable piece of writing will be a short note with a few lines on. On the other hand, if the same person decides to inform language teachers about the most effective ways of teaching grammar (purpose: inform, audience: teachers), he may write it in the form of a book. The purpose and the audience of writing affects all the components of writing: the content (writing about Petőfi Sándor to a Hungarian audience, or writing about him to a Chinese audience), form (we do not type notes to family members, but books have to be type-written and follow strict rules), and style (we use a different language when we write a letter to a friend, or when we write a letter of job application). The present section is devoted to the discussion of style. The term 'style' is used with several different meanings in various fields of study. By style here we mean the choice of linguistic form that results from the writer's attitude or relation to the audience. All texts (even spoken texts) can be placed on a continuum ranging from very informal to very formal. For instance, a telephone conversation between two friends is informal, but a conference paper on applied linguistics is formal in its language. In written genres, an e-mail to a friend is definitely informal, whereas an article on the latest genetic research is formal. There are typical grammatical, lexical and textual features that characterise either the formal or the informal style in English (and other languages as well). As for grammar, the formal style is characterised by complex sentences, especially multiple clause structures (several clauses within one sentence), the use of the passive voice, and only full sentences are possible. On the other hand, the informal style allows for simple sentences and elliptic sentences as well.