When most of us find ourselves needing to write, we usually fall into one of two categories. The first is what I call formal, or academic, writing. This writing style stems from whatever rules we remember from our education. Formal writing, however, tends to be stuffy, verbose, and dry. Worse yet, for many of us it conjures memories of red marks from teachers, maybe even the dreaded "See me after class" message.
And so, in response, we sometimes jump to the second category: casual writing. This style skews in the complete opposite direction of formal writing — or so we think. We try to add humor, friendly phrases, and other mechanisms in an attempt to make our writing feel more welcoming and engaging. Unfortunately, casual writing often suffers from very similar shortfalls as formal writing. Too often, the writing comes across as insincere, condescending, and is just as verbose as the formal writing we're trying to avoid.
For these reasons, I often recommend a third writing style: informal writing. When you write informally, you focus less on how you say something and instead strive to convey your message as clearly and succinctly as possible. When done correctly, informal writing produces content that engages your reader, conveys your message, and respects your users' time.
As most of us already have a clear idea about formal writing, I find it easiest to compare informal writing to casual writing. The analogy I like to use is the following scenario: You and a good friend are at the airport, taking two different flights. You are helping your friend with a project, but their flight is already boarding. What methods do you use to convey the most information in the least amount of time?
Certainly, the academic approach does not work. This is your friend, not a student in a lecture hall. But the casual approach is also insufficient. Your friend doesn't need your banter or your attempts at humor. Their flight is boarding! They need the information, and quickly! In an ideal scenario, you rise to the occasion and provide the necessary information in as few words as possible, without being so terse as to sound inhuman.
To make this more concrete:
Instead of
"Okay, look. To do this thing, what you really want to do is…"
Try
"To do this thing, first…"
You just used 5 words instead of 13, conveyed the information, and still treated your friend like the intelligent human being they are.
Another way to think of informal versus casual writing is to think about how developers write code. A novice developer (and I would know — I am one) might write a perfectly functional feature. But, odds are, they'll use more lines of code than needed, making reviewing, troubleshooting, and maintaining that code more difficult over time. A more experienced developer likely knows how to implement the same feature using fewer lines of code, while also ensuring the code remains human-readable so it's easier to review and maintain. This analogy also works because writing is coding for the human brain.
While the idea of informal writing sounds like the correct way to communicate, it does have a serious drawback: it's much harder to write. There is an old saying: "Forgive me for writing such a long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one." Writing informally is often an exercise in revision — it's the words you don't write that are often the most important. Even experienced writers often start with a verbose first draft, which they then revise until they have to stop. (And notice I say "have to stop" and not "when they are done." To paraphrase another quote: "Writing is never finished; it is only published.")
To employ an informal writing style is to commit to editing — sometimes ruthlessly so. This might mean adding more time to the overall writing process, but the results are often very much worth it. The published content is clearer, more maintainable, and more engaging.
Writing informally provides users the information they need, in a way that engages them and respects their time. Informal writing avoids the potential stuffiness of academic writing, the risky frivolity inherent with casual writing, and the verbosity that often afflicts both. And, while informal writing can take more time — especially for those with less experience — the practice leads to content that is both scalable and, perhaps most importantly, useful.