了解Formal and informal English differ in word choice, word usage, and grammatical structures. Informal writing may sound more like conversation while formal writing may be more polished. An informal style may make listeners feel more comfortable when you are speaking, but a formal writing style can make a good impression.
正式英语与非正式英语主要在单词的选择、用法还是语法结构等方面存在差别。非正式的写作可能听起来更像是对话，而正式的写作需要更多的修饰。非正式的写作风格可能在讲话时让听众觉得更舒服，但是正式的写作风格则会给人留下一个好印象。
Informal writing might utilize the words "contraption," "fire," "kid," "how come," and "quote" as a noun. A formal writer might prefer "device," "dismiss," "child," "why," and "quotation."
非正式写作常用到这些词汇：contraption, fire, kid, how come, quote（动词用作名词）；正式写作则会使用：device, dismiss, child, why, quotation。For example, American English employs a colon in a formal letter as in “Dear John:” but British English employs a comma.
例如，美式英语的正式书信会在称呼后面加冒号（Dear John:），而英式英语则使用的是逗号（Dear John,）。
Limit parentheses, exclamation points, and dashes (prefer colons) in formal writing.
正式写作中要少用圆括号、感叹号和破折号（多用冒号）。
Avoid the ampersand (&); write out the word “and.” Punctuate your writing as you go along to reduce your risk of leaving out punctuation.
避免使用符号“&”，把单词and拼写出来。写作时边写边加标点，这样可以避免遗漏。 Avoid common colloquial words and expressions (colloquialisms), such as "cute" (use "adorable"), "yeah," "how-do-you-do," and "movie" (use "film"), as listed below or labeled as such in your dictionary.
避免使用常见的口语单词和表达（口语用词）。如cute（改用adorable）、yeah、how-do-you-do 和movie（改用film），这些在辞典中都会标出来。
This includes slang such as "cool," "dude," and "humongous." Two good phrases to delete are "you know" and “you might be thinking.” You do not have the power to know your readers’ thoughts while they read your paper.
口语表达还包括俚语cool、dude和humongous；另外还有两个一定不要出现在正式写作中的短语是you know和you might be thinking。你不用了解读者在阅读你的文章时内心的想法。
Another empty sentence is “Think about it.” Assume that your readers are already thinking about what they are reading, and state your point more clearly. The adverb “pretty,” meaning “relatively," "fairly," or "quite,” is unacceptable in all formal writing and is often unnecessary.
另外一个意义空泛的句子是Think about it，因为读者在读文章时已经在思考，所以你只需要把你的观点表达得更加清晰就可以。副词pretty（与relatively意义相同）、fairly或quite 也不应该出现在正式写作中，因为它们通常是多余的表达。Note that the full form of "can't" is one word: "cannot," not "can not."
记住can’t的完整形式是一个单词 cannot（而不是can not）。Formal writing often tries to be objective, and the pronouns "I" and "you" tend to imply subjectivity. Phrases such as "I think that" can be deleted from a sentence when it is obvious that this is the author’s opinion. Using the pronoun "I" is almost always acceptable in personal writing, and the pronoun "you" is almost always acceptable in letters and how-to’s. In the most formal writing, the pronoun “I” is replaced by the pronoun “we”; this is known as the royal we or the editorial we. Formal writing generally avoids the pronoun “you” when it refers to people in general.
正式写作力求客观，而人称代词 I 和 you 则表达的是主观概念。I think that 这样的短语应该从句子中删除掉，因为这明显代表的是作者的主观意见。第一人称 I 可以出现在私人写作中，而第二人称 you 通常在书信和指南类写作中可以使用。在大部分的正式写作中，用 we 代替 I，皇室声明或者社论文章中都使用的we。正式写作一般在指一般人时，很少用到you：
非正式表达：You should sleep eight hours each night.
正式表达： One should sleep eight hours each night.
偶尔使用的正式表达：Most people should sleep at least eight hours each night.
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