Formal Writing Quotes

1. "{When Abraham Lincoln was 26 years old in 1835, he wrote a defense of Thomas Paine's deism; a political associate, Samuel Hill, burned it to save Lincoln's political career. Historian Roy Basler, the editor of Lincoln's papers, said Paine had a strong influence on Lincoln's style:}No other writer of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Jefferson, parallels more closely the temper or gist of Lincoln's later thought. In style, Paine above all others affords the variety of eloquence which, chastened and adapted to Lincoln's own mood, is revealed in Lincoln's formal writings."
Author: Abraham Lincoln

2. "Did you finish yours, Kota?""Working on it now, Actually.""How's it going?"He sat up, turning in his chair and holding up his notebook. "I don't know. What rhymes with formaldehyde?"My eyes widened. Gabriel laughed, rubbing his fingers against his forehead. "Dude, what kind of poem are you writing?"Kota blinked at us. "It's about a doctor.""Does the doctor fall in love?" Gabriel asked."No.""Does someone die?""Not in the story, technically.""What does he do?""He performs an autopsy."
Author: C.L. Stone

3. "Seldon, Hari—It is customary to think of Hari Seldon only in connection with psychohistory, to see him only as Mathematics and as social change personified. There is no doubt that he himselfEncouraged this for at no time in his formal writings did he give any hint as to how he came to solve the various problems ofPsychohistory. His leaps of thought might have all been plucked FromAir, for all he tells us. Nor does he tell us of the blind alleysInto which he crept or the wrong turnings he may have made.…As for his private life, it is a blank. Concerning his parent and Siblings,We know a handful of factors, nor more. His only son,Raych Seldon, is known to have been adopted, but how thatCame about is not known. Concerning his wife, we onlyKnow that she existed. Clearly, Seldon wanted to a cipherExcept where psychohistory was concerned. It is as though he felt--Or wanted it to be felt—that he did not live, he merely psychohistorified."
Author: Isaac Asimov

4. "I think talking is as casual as blogging, and sometimes writing can be as casual as talking. My informal writing style is a political choice, because I want feminism to be more accessible."
Author: Jessica Valenti

5. "Isn't the analogy with good manners perfect? Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word 'punctilious' ('attentive to formality or etiquette') comes from the same original root word as punctuation. As we shall see, the practice of 'pointing' our writing has always been offered in a spirit of helpfulness, to underline meaning and prevent awkward misunderstandings between writer and reader."
Author: Lynne Truss

6. "One night I begged Robin, a scientist by training, to watch Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' with me on PBS. He lasted about one act, then turned to me in horror: 'This is how you spend your days? Thinking about things like this?' I was ashamed. I could have been learning about string theory or how flowers pollinate themselves. I think his remark was the beginning of my crisis of faith. Like so many of my generation in graduate school, I had turned to literature as a kind of substitute for formal religion, which no longer fed my soul, or for therapy, which I could not afford.... I became interested in exploring the theory of nonfiction and in writing memoir, a genre that gives us access to that lost Middlemarch of reflection and social commentary."
Author: Mary Rose O'Reilley

7. "I was a 'learn by doing' writer - I never took any formal writing classes. So it took a long time to figure things out and find my voice."
Author: Sara Zarr

Formal Writing Quotes Pictures