THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 2 page 3

INFORMAL VS. FORMAL LANGUAGE

Remember, you are not to use any informal language when you write or speak at the college level, or in any formal or professional setting. Informal language includes jargon, slang, and familiar forms:

STAY AWAY FROM JARGON

1. Jargon is vocabulary or terminology that is only known to specialists in the field.

Unless you are writing for an audience of specialists (say, people who spin fiber into yarn or doctors who specialize in bones)

For example, unless you are a computer user, the term ‘boot up’ might not mean anything to you. (It means to start up a computer.)

DO NOT USE JARGON IN FORMAL WRITING!

2. Slang refers to words we use every day in place of more formal language and they ruin our ability to converse (speak) formally. If you have learned most of your English vocabulary from listening to others speak, or watching television or listening to the radio, then this can be your most serious enemy!

DO NOT USE SLANG!

If you are not sure whether a word is slang, Look it up!

3. Familiar Forms include the first and second person, singular and plural:

DO NOT USE THESE WORDS IN FORMAL WRITING:

I, you (singular), we, and you (plural):

DO NOT WRITE: I think rainbows are colorful.

DO WRITE: Rainbows are colorful.

DO NOT WRITE: You should think before you speak.

DO WRITE: People should think before they speak

DO NOT WRITE: When watching the play, we were excited.

DO WRITE: When watching the play, the audience was excited.

and do not use the related pronouns:

me, you (singular), us, you (plural)

my, your (singular), our, your (plural)

mine, yours (singular), ours, yours (plural)

DO NOT WRITE: My view is that rainbows are colorful.

DO WRITE: Rainbows are colorful.

DO NOT WRITE: The teacher gave us a test.

DO WRITE: The teacher gave the students a test.

You are not to use these words at the college level. At least not in writing and not at the beginning, as I have said before, until you have mastered the fundamentals of reading and writing formal English.

I am using much informal language in this pre-college level book. Please understand that the vocabulary I am using in this book is designed so that you, who are first learning formal English, can understand it all thoroughly. I have gradually raised the vocabulary level as the book progresses, so that your skills are enhanced as you read.

You should not use the first person (I, we) for one simple reason, although it might upset you somewhat:

NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO YOU OR READ YOUR WRITING SERIOUSLY UNTIL YOU CAN CONVERSE (COMMUNICATE)

IN STANDARD FORMAL ENGLISH.

First you must learn to speak, to read and to write formal English and to master the details of your area of study (also called an ‘academic discipline’).

For the most part, college professors believe that students must first demonstrate that they can communicate in standard English and have learned what the academic community believes students should know before expressing their own opinions. This perspective is partly the result of respect for all the thinkers, writers and intellectual explorers who have come before us.

It is also related to the idea that independence of thought comes from a mastery of the fundamentals of thinking.

This is one of the skills that this book is targeted to teach you. I am encouraging you to think about what you are learning at the same time as you are learning it.

In this way, as a self-conscious and self-confident learner, you can understand why you are learning what you are learning, how it fits into your life and the world, and how best to use your newly acquired knowledge and skills to make a better life for yourself and your loved ones.