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Formal English vs. Informal English

May 12th, 2013 | Posted by rachael in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Formal English and Informal English differ in the tone, and the usage of English. When do you use Formal English and when do you use Informal English?

Formal English

Usually when we talk about the two kinds of English it is in the context of writing. Formal English is used when writing a report, e-mail or a business communication. When you are writing for business, you need to use proper spelling, grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. Your writing must be free of jargon, and be to the point. An example of a letter in Formal English would be a complaint letter to a company. For example, if you bought a fresh loaf of bread, and while eating it, you found mold. You would use Formal English to write a complaint to the bread manufacturing company.

Informal English

Informal English is used when you are on social networks such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. You can also use it when you are writing e-mails to friends and family. When you use Informal English, you can use jargon, abbreviations, creative sentence structure and improper spelling. An example could be writing an e-mail to invite your friends to a BBQ. ”I’m having a BBQ this coming Sunday. Wanna come?”

You might want to be careful about being too free with informal English on Facebook however, Prospective employers can look up your profile, and based upon what they see, decide whether to ask you to come for an interview or not. The rule in writing is usually, when you are in doubt, use Formal English rather than Informal English.

writing

Top Five Mistakes to avoid while writing an email in English

Especially when English is not your mother tongue, there are many mistakes that you want to avoid when you are writing an email in English. We are going to mention only five of them here.

Writer’s tone

Right off the bat, you need to have the right tone for your e-mail. If you are writing to your boss, then you don’t want to sound too casual. Emails have replaced for the most part business notes, but you still need to keep a bit formal when you are writing.

Spelling

The next mistake that you need to watch out for is spelling. Yes, you have a spell checker on your computer nowadays, but if you used to instead of too, both words are spelled correctly, and the spell checker won’t catch your mistake.

Grammar

This leads up to the next mistake to avoid. You still need to use proper grammar when writing an email. If you are unsure if the sentence has proper grammar, then read it out loud. If you still don’t know, then grab an English speaker and read the sentence to them, and they will tell you if it sounds “right.”

Idioms

Another mistake to avoid is the over use of idioms, if you don’t really know the right usage. Don’t let the cat out of the bag, is meant to mean not to tell secrets. This is never taken literally!

Technical Jargon

The last mistake to avoid when writing emails in English is using too many technical jargon phrases and abbreviations that your reader may not know. This makes your email more difficult to understand and it just might get deleted instead of read.

Good luck writing your emails in English.

email, writing

CAE Writing Section

August 28th, 2012 | Posted by rachael in English Exams - (0 Comments)

The CAE writing section tests your ability to write English in a clear and concise manner. You have to write with proper grammar and spelling. There are two parts of the test. The test lasts one hour and a half.

CAE Writing Section: Part One

Part one of the test is a compulsory question, that is you have to answer it. It consists of a reading section of up to 150 words. The subject may be material from a letter, and advertisement, email, a diary entry, or a short article. You have to prepare an article, a proposal, a letter or a report using the information from the reading material. The best way to practice for this part is to read short articles, and write about it. This is best done under the supervision of an experienced teacher.

CAE Writing Section: Part Two

Part two consists of 5 questions, of which you have to answer one. Questions 1-4 have short reading texts of about 80 words that describe a situation. You need to use the information to write one of the following types of writing samples: a report, an article, an information sheet, a proposal or a review. There are two set texts in this part for question 5, for 2012-2013 they are: The Lighthouse by P.D. James and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. You will have to write a report, a review or an article about one of these books. You will not be allowed to bring the books into the exam room, so if you want to do question 5 you need to know the texts very well. I suggest to buy paper copies of the books and really study them with a teacher so that you will feel confident to write about them.

How to pass the CAE Writing Section?
Practice writing. You need to practice writing with a pen, and don't make scratch outs. Plan your answers in a short outline form, and use the word limits given. If you go over, you will use up valuable time. Leave five minutes at the end to proofread your work. Take the CAE Exam Preparation Course from Live-English.net, this is one of the best ways to prepare for the test.

CAE, writing

FCE Writing test

May 15th, 2012 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

In the FCE writing test you will be expected to write a general (non-technical) text for a specific purpose. This means writing an article, an email, an essay, a letter, a report, a review or a story to meet the requirements of the question. As always, to prepare for the FCE writing test, the best advice is practice.

Know the FCE writing questions

Become familiar with the test and the types of questions that will be asked. There really is a very limited scope of questions and the more you are exposed to past questions, the more comfortable you will be in answering them.

Know the answers to the FCE writing test

Look at sample answers. When you are looking at sample answers, the common mistake is to try to use words and phrases that you are not familiar with and using them the wrong way. Learning a language is all about making mistakes and learning from them so take all new phrases and make those mistakes with your teacher rather than in the test. I recommend noting new words and phrases that you come across, writing some practice sentences using these and doing a class with a Live English teacher who can help to ensure that you are using the language correctly.

Know how it is marked

Your writing will be marked based on content, communicative achievement, organization and language used.

Content refers to how well you have done what you were asked to do.
Communicative Achievement refers to whether you have used the appropriate level of formality.
Organisation refers to how well you put together the piece of writing; is it logical and structured?
Language refers to the vocabulary and grammar that you used. Is it accurate and varied?

Know what resources you have available

Keep in mind that you are not the only person doing this test and the internet provides a way of sharing notes and samples with others so don’t forget to Google to find out what others are sharing about the test.

Good luck and remember, practice makes perfect.

exams, FCE, writing, writing task

How are your business writing skills?

March 8th, 2012 | Posted by admin in Newsletter - (0 Comments)

As we promised a few months ago, at Live-English.net, we are trying to get closer to your needs and to help you improve English in an efficient and fun way.

After our successful General English writing course, we are now launching a business writing course. The course is based on 6 written assigments around the following topics:

1. How to write a CV (check out the sample unit)

2. Cover letters and business letters

3. Business presentations and reports

4. Writing emails for business

5. Writing a meeting agenda

6. Promoting your business in writing.

Business English Writing

For each topic, you will be able to send your assignment (even a document that you use for work) and have it corrected by one of our specialized teachers.

The course will start on April 2nd, 2012 and will have limited seats. Register before March 15th and get the early bird price (79€ instead of 99€).

So register now and stay tuned, the course will start in 3 weeks.

To your success,

Stephanie Kable

Director

PS: our General English writing course is still on, find our more about the course

Some of the Latest Blog posts

What is your body language saying about you in job interviews? Recently there have been a few good TV programs about people who use people’s body language to tell what they are really thinking. Programs like Lie to Me and the Mentalist. Being interested in psychology, I love to learn more from programs like this that are based on real research.

TOEFL iBT grammar One of the things that can help you to get a better score with the grammar in the TOEFL iBT is understanding that it only tests American grammar. This means that if you have been exposed to both American and British English dialects, it would help to know some of the differences.

Improve your English spelling In this day and age, the skill of spelling seems to be becoming less important with the invention of spell-checkers on word processors. But if English is your second language, it helps to have a good idea of which word you are trying to spell.

Toyota workers not getting a raise Have you ever asked your boss for more money? Do you work for a large company and have a union to negotiate for your annual pay raise? The workers at Toyota do and last year, their union decided that it was better for the company in the long run if they did not ask for more money for their workers.

Job interview follow-up So the interview is over now and it is just a matter of waiting for the response now, is it? Wrong. If you are really interested in the job, you need to stand out from the rest by communicating more with the interviewers than the others do.

Relocating to the USA Relocating to the USA is a big change. It can be intimidating thinking about getting a new job in another country, finding somewhere to live, schools etc. Here are some steps to making sure that the relocation process goes smoothly:

Have a wonderful week!

business English, writing

It’s like writing but fun

October 22nd, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Here is a very easy way to make your writing immediately more interesting.

In English, we start most sentences with a subject. This is usually a person or a thing. But sometimes, we want to talk about an activity. The easiest way to make your sentences more interesting is to add some variety to the way that you make them.

Mix up the short and the long

If you create a mixture of short sentences and long sentences, you will quickly make your writing unpredictable. It’s that simple. This means that you should not use connectors to make every sentence a compound sentence. Just some. But be careful not to use sentence fragments in your formal writing.

A variety of subjects

Using simple nouns for subjects all the time can become dull. To use a variety of subject types is to make your writing more interesting. You can use the following to start a sentence:

Pronouns

I am having a party.

She is definitely coming.

Other simple nouns (or more precisely noun phrases if they have an article or adjective with them)

The party is at my house.

My house is near the police station.

Modified nouns, which are nouns that have a clause to modify them

The party that my friend went to is over now.

The house where the party was held is badly damaged.

Infinitives

To go to that party would be a mistake.

To drink and drive is illegal.

Gerunds

Going to parties is just something that I don’t enjoy doing.

Cleaning up afterwards is something I hate even more.

Empty subjects- there and it

It is great to be able to have a party at my house.

There will be another party next week.

Noun clauses

Who is at the party is a surprise.

Whoever is left at the end of the night can help me clean up.

So, when you next find yourself with a pen in your hand, try to keep these in mind for the benefit of those who will read your words. Variety is the spice of life.

subjects, writing

A great way to practice your writing in English

September 20th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Most people understand that the best way to improve a skill is to practice. How to practice a skill when it comes to learning languages is not always so obvious. I would like to suggest a novel way to practice your writing in English.

It is fun, it is modern and it is great practice. It is called blogging.

These days, anyone with an email address can quickly and easily start their own blog with the help of sites like WordPress.com and Blogger.com. You can keep them private so that they can be your own little diary which is good if you are not confident to share your writing yet or they can be accessible to the world.

There are many advantages to running a blog for writing practice and so that you can make an informed decision, I have also included some possible disadvantages.

The advantages of blogging over a diary

The blog will spell check as you go, just like a word processor. This is good for immediate feedback on your spelling. People can also read the blog and make comments and corrections. Your friends can help you to improve your English, especially good if you have native English-speaking friends.
You can add tags to your posts. This is a great way to remember vocabulary. If you create tags, you can click on the word and it will show you all posts that include that word. Use this feature for new vocabulary and you can see how you have used this vocabulary in all of your posts.
If it is more fun and sociable, you will do it more often. Get your friends involved and start blogs together. Meet and share your blog with other people who are studying English and the Internet will become your classroom. Just don’t forget to go outside and meet some real people too so that you can practice your speaking from time to time.

The possible disadvantages:

You don’t practice speaking and you don’t practice handwriting. And be careful not to become dependent on spell-check.

You should be careful of what information you put on the Internet. This means that you should get into the habit of not mentioning names or otherwise identifying people when you talk about real events.

You might get so addicted to it that you get carpal tunnel syndrome!

Well, whichever you choose to go, the flash new shiny blog or the trusty old written diary, just remember that the most important thing is regular practice. This is what will get your writing from the level it is now to the level that you want it to be.

As a complement to this, Live-English.net has developed an online English writing course to help you improve your writing skills in English.

blogging, writing

Acing the writing in IELTS

September 12th, 2011 | Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

When people write IELTS tips on forums, I often see the advice to do the second writing task first because it is easier. I think that this is good advice if you are doing IELTS for the first time and just trying to get as high a score as you can. If you are looking to break the 6.5 barrier though, it is time to focus your attention to each mark and make a good attempt at each one.

So I would like to dedicate this post to the first writing task.

Getting a good mark writing task one in IELTS

In this task, you will be asked to write one of the following types of letters

Complaint / Request (of information) letter
Formal business letter
Job application letter
Personal letter

and you should spend 20 minutes on this.

Some tips to help you

Aim to write just over the minimum number of words. Don’t do more as you will run out of time for the second task. Don’t write less or you will be penalized
Don’t try to memorize a letter as you will be tempted to write it even if it does not exactly match the question. Irrelevant text will cost you points
Time is your enemy if you have not practiced so keep an eye on the time
Write clearly. Don’t lose marks because the marker couldn’t read it!
You can write a plan or outline on the question sheet. It will not be marked
The markers are looking for structure, vocabulary and fluency of language

Structure

You should have 3 paragraphs (or more) in your letter and each paragraph should fulfill a purpose:

State the purpose of the letter
Fulfill the purpose of the letter
Summarize what should happen next and close the letter

Vocabulary

The vocabulary that you use should set the appropriate tone. It should be formal for all of the letters except for the personal letter. You should use a wide range of words that you feel comfortable using. Do not try to use words that you are not sure about just to make your writing sound technical as you will probably lose marks for lack of sentence coherence.

Fluency of language

This means that you can make your language flow into one smooth letter. In order to do this, read lots of sample letters and see the phrases that they use and understand how they use them. Do not try to memorize sample letters and reproduce them in the test but understand words, phrases and conventions that are used in letters so that you can put them together into a smooth letter in the test. These days, you can find a multitude of such sample letters on the Internet.

A lot of students start a notebook where they can write down the new language that they see. If you do this, keep a section aside for useful phrases that you see when you are looking at sample letters on the web. This will help you to remember to include these in the appropriate task when you do the writing test.

Good luck for your English exam preparation and I wish you all the best in the IELTS test.

IELTS, task 1, tips, writing

live-english.net - Tag Archive - writing