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Programs and Areas

First Year Writing Program

Teaching Resources: Style

Tried & True Home  |  Transitions | Transition Derby | Commonly Used Transitions | Balderdash | Sentence Structure Activity | Slang, Cliches, and Informal Language | Another Informal Language Activity | Style Tightening Your Writing | Tailor It to the Class Needs | All Purpose Writing Activity | Throat Clearing Phrases | Cutting the Fat | Word Choice

Slang, Cliches, and Informal Language

Skills: Identifying and fixing informal language
Time: 15 minutes

This activity helps your students identify informal language, and gives them an opportunity to learn how to fix it.
  1. Conduct a large group discussion about slang, clichés, and informal language. Where is it appropriate/inappropriate? Where is it effective/ineffective?
  2. Give your class 4-5 sentences that contain informal language (you can draw these anonymously from their papers, or you can make them up yourself).
  3. Break the class into groups of 3 or 4 and ask them to identify the informal language in the sentences. Then have your students rephrase the sentence in more formal or academic language.
Applying Analytical Thinking to a Reading
A Fun Variation: Do the opposite! Find a sentence or two that is very academic or serious and ask the students to rephrase using only clichés or slang.

Have an idea for Tried and True? Send it to fywp@osu.edu!

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