Recognizing Formal vs. Causal Writing

Casual Register

This casual piece of text found on Twitter from @CollegeStudent says, “Moment of silence for the freshman who scheduled classes at 8am thinking we were still in high school”. The comments below talk about their personal experiences with taking college classes.

Formal Register

College freshman students schedule their classes at 8am. This is because those who recently graduated high school have not moved beyond their grade-school routine. Most high schools in the U.S. begin class at 8am. People new to college may not feel comfortable yet with scheduling later classes because of their previous schooling experience.

As they adjust to the busy lifestyle of college, students can be in for a culture-shock. Lack of sleep, healthy diet and exercise all contribute to a student’s overall mental and physical health. Research has shown that starting the school day later can have positive outcomes to a student’s health. Among other benefits, starting the school day later can result in higher quality sleep, improved academic performance, and minimized tardiness and absences.

Reflection

I struggled as I began to write the formal piece. This assignment felt awkward at first. My inner voice was focused on the how and not the what to write. I started the formal piece with a “Dear Dave,” at the beginning. I figured if I pretended to write to my boss’s boss, it would make me feel less comfortable and casual in my writing tone.

I did learn that starting the school day later can be beneficial. I was not expecting to acquire that random piece of knowledge. I feel like this assignment gave me a bit of a confidence boost. Part of my job is to interact with people over email and sometimes (when I receive an unprofessional, casual email) I get tossed curveballs that are hard to recover from. I think this exercise reinforces the ability to navigate a conversation in a professional way.