Writing is a great source of communicating your ideas and thoughts to the reader and when it comes to students, teaching them how to write helps them in learn new ideas and deliver it in the form of sentences for others to understand.

Writing is important in all aspects of life, but when it comes to students, it is more than a skill they learn, writing also determines their academic grades, scholarships, admission, results in assessments and exams resulting how successful career they have and jobs they will get. That is why it is an essential element for the students to learn including common core based language, language skills, grammar, sentence structure and tenses, etc. so that they can improve their writing and get better results.

Formal writing is different than the informal wiring which we use on our social media, letters, casual emails and texting. It is used to deliver a complete message and idea to the reader that is why it should be well composed and look professional. That is why here are 5 best tips which will help you improve your formal writing:

1. Avoid contractions:

Contractions are the short form of the words used instead of the long word like Don’t in place of Do not and Can’t place of Cannot.

The contractions can be helpful for writing day to day writing style, but when it comes to formal and academic writing style, contractions are not used as it may give an unprofessional look. That is why you should use complete spellings which will make it more acceptable for formal writing.

2. Avoid there is/ there are:

The reason behind avoiding there is and there are, is to make your sentences to the point and concise. Instead of long and vague sentences, formal writing requires clear and straightforward sentences.

For example, if we make a sentence like “There are many issues that students face at University.”

Rather we can use a simple sentence like “Students face many issues at university.”

In above example, you can see that the extra words are eliminated by avoiding “there are.” It also makes your sentence more structure and strong, also showing that you have a clear idea of what you are writing. By just eliminating the extra words, your sentence becomes more formal and professional.

3. Avoid, so, very, really, a lot:

When it comes to academic and formal writing, we require strongly structured sentences that is why avoid words which weaken your sentences like very, a lot, so and really. It not only adds the vagueness to your writing but also shows that your thoughts are uncertain.

Instead of using these words in sentences you can simplify these sentences by eliminating extra words and using stronger words at this place.

For example:

1. “Many students think that college is hard.”

You can write “many students think the university is difficult.”

2. “there is a lot of waste of money.”

You can write “much money is wasted.”

3. “this movie is really controversial.”

Write “this movie is controversial.”

You can see in above small changes, your sentence now looks better and structured and shows that you are giving the right information. Also, rather using that an uncountable noun, replace it with an exact figure which gives stronger support to your sentences.

For example “there are a lot of people attending the conference.”

Replace it with “more than 500 people attended the conference.

Support your formal writing with facts, numbers, percentages and reference from a study or research. It will give your reader an authentic feel for your article as well as grab their attention and keep them engaged.

4. Use Active Voice in place Passive Voice:

In most college, university, formal, professional and academic writing active voice is preferred over the passive voice. Especially when you are using humanity, social science, psychology, business or history etc. you should use active voice.

But when it comes to science, you can use passive voice but make sure you never overdo it.

Passive voice not only makes your sentence weak but also takes away the strength of your message.

For example:

“The war was won by Spain.”

You can write simply “Spain won the war.”

Also in long and connected sentences, the passive voice takes the idea of the sentence and makes it a little difficult for the readers to understand.

For example “Political reforms were implemented by Clinton.”

You can write “Clinton implemented political reforms.”

5. Use strong verb in place of weak verbs:

When weak verbs are used, it not only consumes more words but also makes weaken your sentences. That is why you should replace weak verbs with strong verbs and make better sentences for formal writing.

For example “he gave assistance to my wife.”

The stronger verb will be “he assisted my wife.”

Similarly, you should use “Audited” in place of “did an audit” and “investigated” in place of “conducted an investigation.”