Formal |
Moderate |
Colloquial |
|
| Sentences | Relatively long and involved; likely to make considerable use of parallel, balanced, and periodic structures; no fragments. |
Of medium length, averaging between fifteen and twenty-five words; mostly standard structure but with some parallelism and occasionally balanced and periodic sentences; fragments rare. |
Short, simple structures; mainly subject-verb-object order; almost no use of balanced or periodic sentences; fragments common. |
| Diction | Extensive vocabulary, some use of learned words; no slang; almost no contractions or clipped words. |
Ranges from learned to colloquial but mostly popular words; both abstract and concrete diction; occasional contractions and clipped words; may contain some inconspicuous slang. |
Diction limited to popular and colloquial words, frequent contractions and clipped words; frequent use of utility words; more slang than in moderate style. |
| Tone | Always a serious attitude toward an important subject; may be either subjective or objective and informative or affective; no attempt to establish closeness with reader, who is almost never addressed as "you"; personality of the writer not conspicuous; whole tone usually dignified and impersonal. |
Attitude toward subject may be serious or light, objective or subjective, informative or affective; relationship with reader close be seldom intimate; writer often refers to himself or herself as "I" and to reader as "you"; but the range of moderate style is so broad that it can vary from semiformal to semicolloquial. |
Attitude toward subject may be serious or light but is usually subjective; close, usually intimate, relation with reader, who is nearly always addressed as "you"; whole tone is that of informal conver- sation. |
| Uses | A restricted style used chiefly for scholarly or technical writing for experts, or for essays and speeches that aim at eloquence or inspiration; a distinguished style, but not one for everyday use or practical affairs. |
The broadest and most usable style for expository and argumentative writing and for all but the most formal of public speeches; the prevailing style in nontechnical books and magazines, in newspaper reports and editorials, in college lectures and discussions, in all student writing except some fiction. |
Light, chatty writing as in letters to close friends of the same age; on the whole, a restricted style that is inappropriate to most college writing except fiction. |
Taken from Writing With a Purpose (8th ed.) by Trimmer/Sommers. Published by Houghton Mifflin.