Tips On Effective Email Writing: Difference between Formal and Informal Situations
Distinguishing the differences between formal and informal situations is important in e-mail marketing. What are the differences between formal and informal e-mail writing?
• Formal e-mail writing strictly uses standard English terms while an informal writing may use colloquial words and expressions.
• Another difference is the use of contractions such as won’t, can’t, don’t, shouldn’t, haven’t, etc. When it comes to formal writing, these expressions are written in their complete form – will not, cannot, do not, should not, have not, etc.
• The use of clichés such as the vast majority of, each individual child, utilization of resources, etc. is also avoided in a formal writing. Instead, the simple terms are preferred like most, each child, the use of, and others.
• Informal writing allows the use of abbreviations or shortened form of words such as photo, tv, digicam, pro, etc. In formal writing, words are always used in their complete form as in photograph, television, digital camera, professional, and others.
• Formal writing often uses the passive voice while informal writing makes use of the active voice.
Both formal and informal writing are correct. However, when sending a business letter, a formal tone of voice is most often used. When it comes to e-mail marketing, the informal tone is preferred by marketers because it uses a friendlier tone and is more effective in generating positive response from prospects.
Here are some email marketing tips that focus on the difference between formal e-mail writing and informal e-mail writing.
Use the right salutation. If you are writing a formal letter or email, it is important to address the recipient with the appropriate title such as Mr., Mrs., Madam, etc. If you are writing an informal e-mail, you may address the recipient by his first name or nickname.
Do not use smileys. Even if you are writing in an informal tone, when sending a business e-mail, it’s best not to use smileys. Smileys are used only if you are writing a personal e-mail to your friends and family.
Check your grammar and spelling. Just because you’re using an informal tone of voice, you can get away with sloppy writing. Regardless of whether you are writing a formal or informal e-mail, take the time to proofread your message before sending it out. Make sure that the grammar is correct and check your message for typographical errors. Observe the correct use of punctuation marks as well.
Do not use all caps. Another thing to avoid whether you are writing an informal or formal e-mail is capitalizing all the letters of a word or words. This format is often seen as if you’re shouting or yelling to your reader. If you want to emphasize a word, put an asterisk before it or italicize the word instead.
Observe correct capitalization. In both types of e-mail writing – formal and informal – proper capitalization must be observed. Don’t forget to capitalize the first letter of the first word of your sentences. Capitalize proper nouns such names of people, places and titles.
About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through home based internet businesses, campaign internet marketing and business post card.
Related posts:
It is really difficult to distinguish formal from informal. Although it seems easy, when you begin to write a business email, you’ll get confused. I encouraged some of my friends to read this article.. really.. because it is really informative.. Thank you..
1This is a exceptional posting, im ecstatic I stumbled onto this. Ill be back again later to check out other posts that you have on your blog.
2