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ELA 5: What Formal English Looks Like 54 Views
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Description:
Good morrow, good chaps. On this fine day, we shall teach you all about the ins and outs of delightfully formal English. Grab your top hats and a smart overcoat, it's time to take in knowledge.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:14
Old Miss Willers is a bit of a stickler about formal English.
- 00:17
If you’re ever having a conversation with her, and you end a sentence with a preposition…
- 00:21
you’re liable to end up with a face full of cane. [Girl is hit with Miss Willers cane]
- 00:24
So…while there’s a time and a place for informal writing… Miss Willers is not a fan.
Full Transcript
- 00:29
You know how it is. When texting a friend, your writing has a different tone than when [Girl texting a friend]
- 00:33
you send a note of thanks to your grandma for that… lovely...charming Christmas sweater she got you.
- 00:38
Informal writing sounds like conversation.
- 00:41
It’s almost like shorthand. Instead of saying “arrive” you might say [Girl parks car outside a house]
- 00:44
something casual like “show up.” Instead of “children” you might say “kids.”
- 00:48
“Find out” instead of “discover”… “go up” instead of “increase…
- 00:52
“I think” instead of “in my opinion”… “in a nutshell” instead of “to summarize”…
- 00:57
“plus” instead of “furthermore”… Or, “Yo, bird…I’m just grill-hoppin’
- 01:01
and takin’ in the sun feathers” instead of… [two birds on a wire as the sun sets]
- 01:04
…well, huh, we seriously have no idea what that might mean.
- 01:07
So yeah, the downside is that, most of the time, very few other people know what you're
- 01:11
talking about… …which can be a problem. [girl given an F grade for a writing test]
- 01:14
When you write something formal, such as an essay, you should switch to a formal voice,
- 01:18
so people can grasp what you're saying… …and so Old Miss Willers can keep her cane [Boy writing a paragraph and Miss Willers stood with a cane]
- 01:21
where it belongs. By using formal English, you can give your
- 01:24
speaker greater authority… …express complex and technical ideas more [Girl reading a technical journal of English book]
- 01:28
effectively… …and really take the time to flesh out what
- 01:31
you’re trying to say, using terms that any reader will understand.
- 01:35
Okay…almost any reader.
- 01:37
Okay, so…a few rules…
- 01:39
When writing formally, contractions are a big no-no. [Coop discussing formal english rules]
- 01:43
Say “do not” instead of don't and “cannot” instead of can't.
- 01:46
There’s no slang in formal writing, either…ya dig? [Boy hit in the face with a cane]
- 01:50
Sorry, Miss Willers. Yeah…formal writing is meant to last…
- 01:53
a long time. The thing about popular expressions is that
- 01:57
they come and go. Your grandma and grandpa probably said "groovy."
- 02:01
We’re not even kidding. They said things like "out of sight" and "far out." [Girl laughing at her grandparents]
- 02:05
It’s like a whole other language…
- 02:07
Of course, it goes without saying that formal English requires the use of standard punctuation
- 02:11
and grammar. You’ll have to dot your i’s, cross your [Girl inputting punctuation to a sentence]
- 02:14
t’s and please, please, please use the right type of “there.”
- 02:18
Whenever you read something written in formal English…
- 02:20
…it should be a signal to you that you’ll be reading about a serious subject.
- 02:24
That doesn’t mean it has to be about death and destruction… [A boy with an orange arm cast in a doctors room and death appears]
- 02:26
…but…it’s at least going to be about some important topic or another that calls
- 02:29
for clean, precise and professional language. Besides, if you don’t want everything to
- 02:33
be about death and destruction… …we suggest you don’t do anything else
- 02:36
to anger Miss Willers… [Miss Willers looking for a larger cane]
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