Any advice on how to write more casually?

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NotHolyRomanOrAnEmpire
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

Joined: 26 Jun 2022
Gender: Male
Posts: 23

27 Jun 2022, 9:52 am

I have issues with making my speech seem casual, it’s not such a problem in person but when texting or writing emails my writing can be too stilted and formal. I can change it but then it often swings in the other direction and seems overly blunt or childish. I don’t really know how to fix it.



kraftiekortie
Veteran
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Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

28 Jun 2022, 6:12 am

Try to convey your thoughts in as few words as possible. Don’t go off on too many tangents. Use simpler words that have the same meaning as “bigger” words. Sometimes, “writing like you’re speaking” works for me.

Read Ernest Hemingway. He was excellent at this.



Pteranomom
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 21 Apr 2022
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 345

29 Jun 2022, 9:09 pm

Try to match the other person's style.
For texting, leave off about half the punctuation, especially periods
Like that ^



rse92
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Age: 64
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Location: Buffalo, NY

30 Jun 2022, 3:10 pm

I personally don't think there is a problem with corresponding in a formal, grammatically correct, complete manner, even in (maybe especially in) today's world. I am a lawyer, and I am frankly shocked at how informal correspondence to clients and, especially, to other lawyers has gotten. If I wrote that way when I was a young lawyer in the 1980s, one of my bosses would have given it to me the way Father Ted gave it to Bishop Brennan.