certificate in web design and writing
hello, my name is emma, and in today's lessonwe are going to learn about writing. what kind of writing? writing letters. okay? so thisis important for people who work in business. it's also important for people who like towrite letters to their friends maybe or to their grandparents in english. also, it isvery... it is a very useful video for anyone who is taking the general ielts test. so ifyou're taking not academic, but general, this is an important video. and also, if you planto immigrate to canada and you want to do the canadian immigration test which is called:"the celpip", this video is also... it will also be useful and helpful to you.okay? so let's get started. what do i mean by "formal"and "informal"? "informal" means something
you would write to your friends, something youwould write to your parents, - well, probably your parents unless you're afraid of yourparents, then you might be more formal -, your classmates, your coworkers. okay? so this is...it means it's not formal; it's for people you know well. on the other hand, "formal"english we use with strangers, we use with our boss, in the workplace, we use it in thesedifferent ways. so it's the english you really have to think about, whereas informal is kind ofthe relaxed english. so relaxed, serious. okay? so, sometimes you will have to write a letterformally, maybe to your boss or your company, other times maybe you're on holiday and youwant to write a letter to your friend, you'll use informal english. so whatis the difference? let's see.
informal english uses contractions. what arecontractions? "didn't", "wouldn't", "couldn't", "haven't", "hasn't". so if you see a verbwith an apostrophe and then a "t", that is a contraction. okay? it's very important toknow this because in formal writing, you don't use contractions. "didn't" would be: "didnot". i can write that for you. "did not". couldn't: could not, haven't: have not, can't:cannot. okay? so that's one major difference. another major difference between formal andinformal writing is the use of idioms; the use of certain expressions. if i'm writingto my friend, maybe i'll say: "oh, you know, i've been very under the weather lately."meaning: i've been very sick. if i'm writing to my boss, i won't use idioms. if i'm writinga formal letter, i will not use idioms. those
aren't good to usein formal writing. phrasal verbs, this is another thing we findin informal writing. what is a phrasal verb? it's a verb that has a preposition. okay? so,for example: "find out", "find" is a verb, "out" is the preposition. "go" is the verb, "up"is the preposition. so the... the preposition adds a different meaning to the verb. phrasalverbs are very difficult to learn; we have so many of them in english. my students havetold me phrasal verbs are one of the hardest parts of learning english, butit's possible, you can do it. so, in informal writing, we use phrasal verbs,whereas in formal writing: what do we use? we don't use phrasal verbs. we usually uselonger words that mean the same thing. example:
"find out": "discover". "discover" is moreformal. "go up", for example: "prices have gone up.": "prices have increased." "increased"is more formal. okay. for more of these examples, there will be a list in the resourcesection of the engvid website. i'll talk more about that later. next: imperatives. imperatives are sentencesthat start with a verb. "don't talk to me that way.", "help your mother more.", "doyour homework." okay? parents love to use imperatives and so do teachers. so, if you'rewriting to your friends, you can use imperatives. "send it soon!" maybe your friend has to mailyou a package, you write: "send it soon! i want it, send it soon!" in formal writing, wedo not use imperatives; they're too strong.
we like to use more polite sentences: "youmay send it at your earliest convenience." do you see how much longer the formal is thanthe informal? formal writing is usually a lot longer than informal writing; it's notsimple sentences, it's long complex sentences. and you often see words like: "may", "could","would" instead of: "want", "can". okay. so this is one of themain differences. all right, so what are some more examples?for informal, words like: "very". "he's very cool.", "he's really great.", "he's totallyhot." okay, these are things you would never say in the workplace, but you might say toyour friend. so if you see: "very", "really", "totally" - informal english. okay? it's...it's okay to use these in letter writing,
but not when you're writing to a client, toyour boss, in the workplace, on the ielts if it says, you know: "a formalletter", don't use these words. what about formal? "strongly". "i stronglyadvise you to clean your room." you'd never write that to anyone, but that's an exampleof "strongly". it gives emphasis just like "really", "very", and "totally" do. okay? so:"i strongly agree.", "we strongly recommend that you send in your order form as soon aspossible." okay? so you might see the word "strongly" used informal writing. okay. informal writing, you can use these asconnectors. okay? so if you're connecting one idea to another idea, one paragraph toanother paragraph. "to top it all off,", "on
top of it all,". "to top it all off, my vacationwas ruined because of a blizzard.", "to top it all off, there was a fly in my salad.","to top it all off, the actor in the movie was horrible." okay? "on top of it all," thesesort of mean like the last thing you say, the last word on something. "on top of itall, she was very rude to me." so these are informal expressionsto connect ideas. here, we have some formal equivalents: "furthermore,"."furthermore, she was rude to me.", "furthermore, the actor was terrible." okay? so it's theformal way of saying things. "moreover," and all of these are another way to say: "and",so don't let these words scare you; it's just another way to say: "also", "and", youadd another piece of information.
okay, next idea for what's informal use: "tv"."tv", what is "tv"? it's an abbreviation; it's the short form of a word. the full wordis: "television". so what does this mean? do not use abbreviations in formal writing.you can use "tv" in informal writing. don't use abbreviationsin formal writing. next idea: "!". in informal writing, you canwrite: "!", it's okay. in formal writing: can you do this? no. so no "!". another difference: in informal writing, youcan use the word: "a lot". "i have a lot of friends.", "i have a lot of hobbies.", "ihave a lot to say to you.", "i have a lot to teach you." in formal writing, the betterthing to use is: "much/many". okay, so if
you write a letter in your company: "much/many"better idea. they all mean: "a lot". finally, in informal writing, non-latin wordsare common. now, why do i say: "non-latin"? for those of you who speak spanish, french,italian, these are latin-based languages. for example: "intelligente" in french, the englishword... the english equivalent: "intelligent". so you can see that many words in english havea latin root. now, these words are usually more formal, so you don't want to use latinwords. you want to use common words. okay? so non-latin words/common words, this is ininformal writing, but you don't want to use it in formal writing. in formal writing: use latin based words, useuncommon words. okay? that's a characteristic.
so i would use the word: "intelligent", iwould use the word... instead of "smart". maybe with my friends, i write: "smart",here, i might use: "intelligent". okay, so for a full list of some of thesewords i'm talking about, - you know, another example would be: "kids", "children" -, phrasalverbs, expressions to use in informal writing versus formal writing, for a longer list, youcan come visit our website at www.engvid.com. you can also visit our website to do ourquiz to see how much of this you remember. until next time.
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