Formal Writing: Tips To Write Reports, Letters, And Emails

Speaking skills are extremely important, but so is  writing. Writing is the first point that people will judge you on, or people will know you when you make an application to a college or when you make an application for a job. So, at several points in your life, formal writing skills become extremely important. But nothing comes without practice. We look at formal writing, specifically at reports, letters, and emails as being very important, especially if you are going to take up a presentation, project, or a job. You need reports and letters or something you will write all your life, even on your deathbed. If you want to change your will, you will write a formal letter. It is that important. The content and tone of the letter are very important, but these things are not usually taught. So, here are some formal writing skills you should know.

Things To Avoid

What are some of the things you should avoid while writing formally? Let us take a look.

• Short Forms like ‘ASAP’ for ‘as soon as possible’, ‘pls’ for ‘please’, and so on.
• Contractions like ‘can’t’, write ‘cannot’.
• Colloquialisms like ‘stuck’.
• Slangs like ‘guy’, ‘peeps’, and so on.
• Superlatives like ‘fantastic’, ‘awesome’, etc.
• Emotional language like ‘I’m heartbroken’.
• Generalisations like ‘All of us are aware…’, ‘Everybody knows…’

Many of these things are used in speech but should not become a part of writing.

Things To Use

What are the aspects that you should ideally include in formal writing? Here are a few of them:-

Reported Speech | Usage of reported speech as one of the formal writing skills can make your writing more effective. For example, if we say, “Several employees said that there was a problem”, in a reported speech, we will say, “Several employees reported that there was a problem”.

Passive Voice | “It has been reported that there was an argument among two parties”. The concentration should be on the activity rather than the people involved, thereby taking away from the personal aspect of it.

Formal Vocabulary | So, when you write, “This to inform you…”; “This is to request you…”, it automatically is formal language. Read a lot of common letters, mark them, underline them, and try to understand how they were written. Write your own letters, see what mistakes you are making, and how formal letters change when people write good formal letters. If you want to write, it is very important that you should read. Reading the newspaper and that too, aloud, is a great way to understand how to use formal language.

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Report Writing

The purpose of report writing is to report and even to inform, analyse, and influence. These are the reasons why we report anything like an event. What are the features of a report? Let us discuss.

Title And Byline | This is where you write the title of the report and the name of the reporter.   

Answer Key Points | For instance, you have to report your official visit to Paris to your boss. There are some questions that will come handy and to which your report should have answers. These are basically the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of the event.

One Factual Event | One factual event is all that you will take, and not multiple events to talk about. The event could be planned or unplanned. For example, you might be reporting an accident, which is an unplanned event.

Chronological Sequence | Put things in the order of the date and time as they occurred, for utmost clarity to the readers.

Tense And Voice | Reports are usually in the past tense, or timeless present tense. Also, action verbs, descriptive adjectives, and passive voice are important.

The Purpose Of Report Writing Is To Report And Even To Inform, Analyse, And Influence.

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Formal Letters

What are some of the formal writing skills you need to keep in mind while writing a formal letter? Some of the formal letter writing tips are:

Tone | One of the formal letter writing tips is to be aware of the tone of the letter which must be appropriate. For example, if you're asking for a refund, then your tone should be polite, informative, and decisive. Why are you seeking a refund? What did you buy? What went wrong with it? That must be there. If that does not, then you're just saying, give me my money back. That will not have any impact. “I would appreciate it If you sent the money to me at the earliest” would be polite without being rude.

Get To The Point | You need to get to the point without frills or repetition, nobody has time. Remember, formal writing is about time. So, get to the point straight away.

Spellings And Punctuation | Another formal letter writing tip is to check spelling errors since that leaves a terrible impression on people. If your punctuation is wrong, for example, 'Yours truly’ has no apostrophe, just take a good look at a good letter and note the punctuation.

Use Modal Verbs | Modal verbs like ‘would’, ‘could’, and ‘should’ sound very polite. ‘Could I have…’, sounds much better than ‘Please, I want that’.

Phrasing | Another one of the formal letter writing tips is to paraphrase which can be standard. Beginning a letter with ‘This is to inform you…’, or concluding one with ‘Looking forward to your response..’ are things you can just memorise and use.

Emails

If you want something, you can quickly type an email and send it, “We are waiting for your confirmation.”; “Would you please let us know when we can expect it? Thank you. Best regards.” So, emails can be very brief. Here are some formal email writing tips

• These are less formal than formal letters.
• There is no address and date requirement.
• Another formal email writing tip is that salutation must be formal and closure does not need a physical signature.
• Content must be brief, to the point, and can be less stiff than a formal letter.
• Personal emails can be more like informal letters but the content must be clear and concise.
• Emails are recognised as formal documents and can be printed out and filed.
• Emails can be stored on a cloud for permanence.

The formal email writing tips we’ve just discussed shall be helpful in enhancing one’s formal writing skills, be it for academic or professional purposes.

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