Formal vs. Casual

Professional Authors                                                Everyday Author

Published under a label	Self-published
Generally specialized in a specific area	Casual format to writing
Some form of formal training in their area	May not be as dependable as far as research
Works through levels of organization	Available to write about anything.
Uses outside resources and editors	Writing can be more for personal gratification
May be assigned/ asked to pursue a subject

Formal Writing                                                         Casual Writing

More lack of emotion or bias (hopefully)	My be heavier on emotion or opinion
No personal attachment/written in 3rd person	More conversational/simpler terms are used
No contractions of words	Can use 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person perspective
More research involved	More flexible to weight arguments or ideas
May be more academic

1. Most of the differences came to mind after having read the introduction to Everyone’s an Author and from descriptions I have run across through prior exposure to the media.
2. I came across additional differences by looking up each term, so that I could see other definitions and not just my own.
3. I don’t think there is strictly just a “one or the other”, everything falls within degrees of something else. One writing may be closer to formal or informal than another writing, but that doesn’t make it part of just one category. I think the differences are important because they are used to determine where on the spectrum one article may fall.
4. It is useful to know who I am writing for so that I can apply the proper format to my writing. In my own writing, I tend to look for writings by professional authors when it comes to research, and I find it helpful to read other informal chronicles for inspiration in my personal writings or fictions.