How to Avoid Colloquial Informal Writing

It can be difficult for many people who are trying to write to find a balance between formal and informal writing. Get too formal and your words will sound stilted and ingenuous. Go with a tone that is too informal and the reader may not even understand what you are saying. Try a few of these tips to avoid colloquial informal writing.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Stay away from clichés. If you've heard an expression used over and over again, then leave it alone. Clichés often turn into colloquialisms that are most often used by people who do not have a very broad vocabulary. They are stand-bys for writers who do not have a good grasp of their language.
2. Imagine you are writing to your mother. If she won't understand the phrases that you've employed in your writing, then find another, more universally formal way of getting across your idea.
3. Use contractions sparingly. Contractions can set a conversational tone, as if you were talking to your audience, but are not as base as colloquialisms. Conversely, if you never use contractions, your writing will not be as easy to read.
4. Read more formal writing in magazines, books and novels. You will learn to improve your vocabulary so you won't be tempted to fill in the blanks with colloquial words and phrases.
5. Ask a writer friend or relative to edit your writing if you are sending it somewhere that counts. If you are writing a cover letter for a job or an email to settle a legal dispute, then you want to be as clear and concise as you can. Even the best writers need editors to read their work before it is published. After all, clarity is the point of writing and if your colloquialisms turn off or confuse the reader, it defeats the whole purpose of writing it in the first place.