Formal Writing Voice Guidelines

Use academic vocabulary that you understand.

Don't try to impress the reader with fancy words that you found in a thesaurus.

No exclamation mark or question marks (no questions)

No ! No ?

No second person (you, your)

Second person pronouns can be replaced with "one," "the reader," or "the readers."

No first person (I, me, my)

WRONG: I think that this character is confused. RIGHT: This character is confused. (The second sentence is less wordy, sounds more formal, and conveys a more confident tone.)

Spell out numbers that can be written in one or two words (three, fifteen, seventy-six, one thousand, twelve billion);

use numerals for other numbers.

Do not use the following words in formal writing:

would, could, should, needs, may, might, how, get, and got

Write in present tense, but avoid ing verbs.

(WRONG: He is constantly thinking. RIGHT: He thinks.)

No slang, text language, or idioms

(guy, stuff, yeah, kind of, okay, freak out, dissing, awesome, ur, lol, tbh, idk)

Do not use contractions, abbreviations, or symbols.

(he's, what's, etc., photo, phone, &)

Use the active voice, not passive voice.

Active: Sasha (noun performing the action) ate (the action) an apple (object receiving the action). Passive: An apple (noun) was eaten (the action) by Sasha (the noun performing the action).