Teacher Takes Notes

Here's a quick guide to code-switching

You already know how to switch your voice. You don’t text your best friend the way you’d email your principal — you just do it automatically. That skill has a name: code-switching, and it’s exactly what you need for academic writing. The good news? You don’t need a whole new vocabulary. You just need to know which knobs to turn.

Here’s the thing formality experts (yes, that’s a real specialty — the Purdue Online Writing Lab has taught this for decades) agree on: formality isn’t a switch, it’s a dial. A text to your friend, a caption on your Instagram story, and a college application essay all sit at different points on the same scale. The further your audience is from “someone I know personally,” the higher the dial goes.

The Five Moves That Actually Change the Tone

1. Kill the contractions

Informal: “I can’t believe we didn’t finish the project.” Formal: “I could not believe we had not finished the project.”

It looks small, but contractions signal casual speech. Spelling them out instantly makes a sentence feel more considered.

2. Trade vague words for precise ones

Informal: “There’s a lot of stuff wrong with this plan.” Formal: “This plan contains several significant flaws.”

Words like stuff, thing, a lot, and get are placeholders — they mean almost anything. Formal writing forces you to name exactly what you mean. “Get better grades” becomes “improve academic performance.” “A lot of pollution” becomes “a substantial increase in emissions.”

3. Lengthen and connect your sentences

Informal: “The experiment failed. We tried again. It still didn’t work.” Formal: “Although the experiment failed initially, we repeated it under the same conditions; however, the results remained inconclusive.”

Short, choppy sentences read like speech. Formal writing links ideas with words like although, furthermore, therefore, consequently — these show the relationship between your ideas, not just the ideas themselves.

4. Drop the slang and idioms

Informal: “The new policy is a piece of cake to follow.” Formal: “The new policy is straightforward to follow.”

Idioms are great in conversation but risky in formal writing — they can be unclear (especially to a reader from a different cultural or linguistic background) and they undercut a serious tone. Say what you mean directly.

5. Step back from “I think” and “you”

Informal: “I think you should always double-check your sources.” Formal: “Writers should always verify their sources.”

This one trips up a lot of students. It’s not that your opinion doesn’t matter — it’s that formal writing often speaks in a more universal, objective voice rather than a personal one, especially in essays, reports, and analysis.

More Examples, More Contexts

Formality shifts aren’t just about essays. Here’s the same five moves at work across situations you’ll actually run into:

Group chat → Email to a teacher Informal: “hey miss, cant make it to the review session today, sry, something came up” Formal: “Dear Ms. Z, I am writing to let you know that I am unable to attend today’s review session due to a prior commitment. I apologize for the short notice.”

Sports commentary → Match report Informal: “City totally smashed United, it was honestly no contest.” Formal: “City recorded a decisive victory over United, dominating the match from the opening minutes.”

Social media caption → Museum exhibit label Informal: “omg this painting is INSANE, the colors are everything” Formal: “The painting’s vivid use of color creates a striking visual impact, drawing the viewer’s attention to its central figure.”

Talking about a book with a friend → Literary analysis Informal: “The main character is kind of a mess, he keeps messing everything up.” Formal: “The protagonist’s repeated errors in judgment reveal his internal conflict and drive the novel’s central tension.”

Complaining to a friend → Formal letter of complaint Informal: “This product is total garbage, I want my money back ASAP.” Formal: “I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with this product and to formally request a refund.”

Notice the pattern: the facts never change. Only the register — the level of formality — shifts to match the audience and purpose.

For My IB Students Specifically: Why This Isn’t Just a Writing Trick

If you’re in MYP Language and Literature, register control isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s literally graded. Two of the four assessment criteria depend on it directly:

• Criterion C (Producing Text) assesses how well your writing shows intention for purpose and audience. A piece that doesn’t control its register is a piece that hasn’t fully understood who it’s written for.
• Criterion D (Using Language) explicitly assesses your control of register and tone, alongside vocabulary and grammar. Inconsistent register — slipping into “I feel like” in the middle of a formal essay — is one of the most common ways students lose marks here even when their ideas are strong.

A few ways to put this to direct use in your MYP work:

1. Before you submit any piece, run a “register check”. Read it back and ask: does this sound like I’m talking to a friend, or writing for an examiner? If any sentence would sound normal in a text message, it’s a signal to revise.
2. Match register to task type, not just to “formal writing” in general. A persuasive speech (oral, audience-facing, can use rhetorical questions and repetition) is a different formal register than a literary essay (written, analytical, more distanced). Both are formal — but they’re not identical. Know which one your task is asking for.
3. This skill transfers directly to your Personal Project and, later, the Diploma Programme. Your Personal Project report, your DP Extended Essay, and DP English A all expect sustained, controlled academic register — this is the exact muscle you’re building now.
4. Use it as a revision strategy, not just a first-draft rule. Try writing your first draft in your natural voice to get ideas down fast, then do a dedicated “formality pass” applying the five moves above. This often produces stronger writing than trying to sound formal from sentence one.

Try It Yourself

Take this informal paragraph:

“Honestly, this book was kind of a rollercoaster. The main character can’t catch a break, and stuff just keeps happening to him. I think the author did a pretty good job showing how tough his life is, but some parts dragged on a bit too long.”

Now apply the five moves — remove contractions, sharpen vague words, connect sentences, cut idioms, shift away from “I think”.

The One Rule to Remember

You’re not losing your voice when you write formally. You’re just learning to speak a second language you’ll use for the rest of your academic life — through the MYP, into the Diploma, and beyond.

oops.

That just. Made my writing informal. “juuuusssssssst” a little bit less formal.