ENG3U



ENG3U Characteristics of Formal and Informal Essay Writing Name:

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Don’t think of ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ as two buckets into which all essays must be stored; instead, think of it as a spectrum (or scale), with informal at one end and formal at the other. Essays may fall anywhere on the spectrum and thus be ‘more’ informal or have some formal elements, but fall in between both styles.

|Characteristic |Informal Essay |Formal Essay |

|Author’s Viewpoint |Usually uses first person; directly addresses the reader |Usually uses third-person pronoun |

|Subject, Content, |Frequently drawn from life of the writer and everyday |More commonly drawn from shared historical events or |

|Sources of Evidence |events |literature or other forms of traditional knowledge |

|Tone |Frequently more personal and subjective; may be ironic, |Tends to be removed from the subject and appears to be |

| |amusing, thoughtful, angry, or serious |objective; may be ironic, amusing, thoughtful, angry, or |

| | |serious, but tends to hold emotions in check and express |

| | |concerns through strong arguments and powerful rhetorical |

| | |devices |

|Structure |Appears to be more loosely structured |Follows a fairly rigid structure (point, proof, |

| | |explanation) that focuses on the development of one clear |

| | |argument at a time to support a clearly stated thesis |

|Location of Thesis |May appear anywhere in the essay; may not be explicitly |Usually stated explicitly, generally located in the first |

| |stated |or second paragraph of the essay |

|Style |A number of stylistic devices likely used to engage the |A number of stylistic devices likely used to engage the |

| |reader; vocabulary tends to be drawn from everyday usage |reader; vocabulary tends to be more academic and may |

| | |contain some unfamiliar words |

|Purpose |Entertainment; gentle reflection |Provokes thought, and sometimes action |

ENG4U Formal and Informal Essay Application Activity Name:

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Use two of the following charts—one for Chuck Klosterman’s “Cultural Betrayal” and the other for Northrop Frye’s “Don’t You Think it’s Time to Start Thinking?”—to deconstruct and organize the elements and characteristics of the essay.

Choose specific passages or quotations as evidence to help support why you believe the individual characteristics of each essay are either informal or formal.

|Characteristic |Informal Essay |Formal Essay |

|Author’s Viewpoint | | |

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|Subject, Content, | | |

|Sources of Evidence | | |

|Tone | | |

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|Structure | | |

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|Location of Thesis | | |

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|Style | | |

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|Purpose | | |

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