When we talk about the tone of an essay,
what we're talking about is the level of
formality of your writing, so the level
of formality. And the really crucial
thing to take away from this video is
that there is a continuum or a range of
levels of formality, which means that
even though we can distinguish between
more formal writing, more academic
writing (and that'll be the first passage
here), and a more kind of popular or
informal style, there's no right or wrong
with this. In other words, your writing
can really fit into a number of
different categories depending on the
assignment, the audience, and the biggest
thing to take away from this is just a
certain level of consciousness as to
what constitutes quite formal writing
versus what some of the features of
informal writing are. So let's compare
these two passages. The first one talks
about sea voyages in the Pacific, and
then the second one is more a kind of
memoir style account of a voyage in the
Atlantic. So the first one is more formal,
and one thing you'll see here is that
there's very little use of "I." So no
"I." You are allowed to use "I" in certain
formal contexts, but in this case
the tone is quite ... objective or
scientific, so a fairly objective kind of
tone. "In the Pacific, traditional canoes
were often double hulled or used
outrigger floats." Another thing you see
here is the use of fairly technical
jargon, which is more common in formal
academic writing. And we also
typically see a more kind of elevated
diction, so you would not expect to see
swear words, or slang, or what's sometimes
referred to as colloquial writing. The
word "colloquial" means really just slang
or common day speech. So no colloquial
writing in academic writing -- no
colloquial phrases. The second passage
doesn't have two many of those either,
but it is just something to be aware of.
Another thing that you'll find in a
more academic kind of style
is a more nuanced kind of approach.
You see here, for instance, this phrase "it
is possible." In other words, a claim is
not being made that this is a hundred
percent true, but there are different
theories out there, and you notice too
this reference to other criticism or
other theories. So there's criticism out
there. There are people with ideas, and we
tend to quote them or refer to them, and
interact with those ideas. Academic
writing then, because it does these
things, that is why it also seems then
more objective. It isn't necessarily of
course! Another thing to watch out for is
a lack of emotion. In this case we have
this word "remarkably," for instance, and
that's as much emotion as we see in this
passage. The second passage uses a word
"exhilarating" by contrast, which is much
more emotional. I guess we
could call this hyperbolic -- more
hyperbole. [It's] a little bit more over the top.
Just to sum up, then, what constitutes
academic writing is a style that's a bit
more objective, that is typically more
nuanced, often also uses a
sentence structure that's more complex.
Clauses are often subordinated to each
other, more technical, not so emotional,
and I think you can kind of see the
point or the proof in this passage.
The second passage then is much more
popular in nature. You'll see a more
frequent use of "I." You also see these
contractions sometimes in popular
writing, so a contraction is where the
apostrophe stands in for part of the
word that's left out, and here the
full word would be "cannot." In formal writing
you would definitely want to spell that
out. Other things you'll note about the
second passage is that it contains more
narrative, so popular writing tends to be
more narrative, whereas academic writing
is often more strictly logical -- follows
a more direct and logical path. This
second kind of
style is also typically more relaxed in
its diction, so more casual diction. And
we said before that sometimes that can
become colloquial even. So here we have
words like "alright" and "gusto." These are
not words you wouldn't necessarily find
in academic writing. Another thing is the
the use of certain types of sentences. So
more dashes often in academic, or sorry
in popular writing, shorter clauses, as in
the last bit here ... lots of features then
that make this more casual, more popular
than the more academic prose that we
had before. One thing, or a couple of
things to end with then, first I just
want to repeat that there's this
continuum, and neither of these two
styles is what you should necessarily be
aiming for all the time.
You just have to find your
place in this continuum, and it is
always going to depend on the assignment
and the audience. The last thing is that
often when students are new to academic
writing they tend to overdo it.
They often copy the worst features of
academic writing, which are its
difficulty and impenetrability. Don't do
that.
Do this simple test to help you out. If
it's something that you would never say
to anybody in person, then don't write it
either,
and even though academic writing is a
little bit different from normal speech,
I do think that's a good test so that
you don't go overboard and use this
really complicated diction [or] use a
thesaurus all the time. Don't do that.
Try to be natural and try to focus on
getting your ideas across in a clear and
cogent manner.