What makes writing formal?

Fewer contractions, less informal vocabulary, fewer first- and second-person pronouns, no exclamations, more formal connectors and somewhat longer sentences. This tool counts all six and shows how each contributes to the score.

Is formal writing better than informal writing?

No. Register should match the audience. A grant proposal, a chat message and a novel each want a different setting, and the score describes which one the draft has chosen rather than which it should have chosen.

Why does my score change with sentence length?

Sentence length is one of the six components, carrying ten percent. Very short sentences read as choppier and more conversational, so the component loses five points for each word below a mean of fifteen.

What score should I aim for?

Whatever suits the document. The useful check is consistency rather than a target: score each section and look for drift, because an unintentionally casual paragraph inside a formal report is the problem this tool catches best.

Formality Level Detector

Q: How is the formality score calculated?

As a weighted average of six counted components: contractions 20%, informal vocabulary 25%, pronouns 20%, exclamations and questions 10%, formal connectors 15% and sentence length 10%. The weight and rule for each is printed on the page.

Your text

Paste or type text

Formality

Start typing above — the results update as you write.

How the score is built

Formality is a weighted average of contractions (20%), informal vocabulary (25%), first- and second-person pronouns (20%), exclamations and questions (10%), formal connectors (15%) and sentence length (10%). It is a convention for this tool, not a published index, so the weights are stated here and the components are usually more useful than the total.

The Formality Level Detector scores how formal your writing reads from six countable markers, and shows the weight, measurement and rule behind each one so the score can be argued with.

What is Formality Level Detector?

Formality is not a mystical quality of prose; it is a set of countable habits, and counting them is what this tool does. Six markers produce a score out of one hundred, and every weight and curve is printed on the page so the result can be traced rather than taken on trust.

Contractions carry a fifth of the score. Formal writing tends to write words out in full, so don't, it's and we're pull the reading down, and the component loses twenty points for every contraction per hundred words. Informal vocabulary carries a quarter: words such as really, very, stuff, things and gonna are counted against a published list, and each occurrence costs eight points per hundred words. First- and second-person pronouns carry another fifth, because formal writing prefers the impersonal or third person; I, we, you and the rest cost six points per hundred words.

Exclamations and questions carry a tenth, since formal prose is largely declarative, and the component loses thirty-five points per hundred punctuation marks. Formal connectors carry fifteen percent and are the one component that rewards presence rather than absence: therefore, thus, moreover, furthermore and their neighbours score twenty points per hundred words, capped at the maximum. Sentence length carries the final tenth, losing five points per word below fifteen for a choppy register.

The weighted average lands in one of five bands, from very formal through formal, neutral and informal to very informal, and each band carries a one-line note describing where it usually appears: academic or legal prose at one end, speech and chat at the other.

Two distinctions are worth holding on to. Formal writing is not the same as wordy writing: a densely formal sentence can be concise, and a chatty one can ramble. Formal writing is also not automatically better. Register should match the audience and the occasion, and a grant proposal, a chat message and a novel each want a different setting. The score describes which one the draft has chosen, not which one it should have.

The practical use is consistency. Most register problems are unintentional drift rather than a wrong choice: a report that opens formally and slides into contractions, or a lively blog post with a stiff paragraph left in from an earlier draft. Score a section, read the components that moved, and the drift becomes visible. Because the markers are listed and counted, a low score always points at specific words rather than at a vague feeling that the writing sounds casual.

It helps to know which way each marker moves the score. Contractions, informal words, pronouns and exclamatory punctuation all pull it down, while formal connectors and longer sentences push it up. Rewriting a paragraph usually means changing two or three of those categories, not all six, and the components panel shows which ones are doing the work. A draft that reads as too casual is nearly always heavy on contractions and pronouns rather than short on formal connectors, so expanding a few contractions is often the whole fix. Register is a choice, and the score only reports which one the text has made.

How to use Formality Level Detector

Paste your text; the score and the six components update as you type.
Read the band and its note to place the register against the audience you have in mind.
Open the components panel and find the one dragging the score down.
Apply the rule shown for that component — expand contractions, replace informal words, cut exclamations.
Score each section separately when you want to check consistency across a longer document.

When to use Formality Level Detector vs related tools

Use the formality detector when you want a single register reading with its parts exposed. When the question is broader — how the prose sounds overall — the Tone Analyzer reports five signals including this one.

For academic writing specifically, the Academic Writing Tone Checker turns formal writing conventions into a per-rule checklist, and the Style Guide Adherence Checker covers the mechanical conventions a house style adds on top.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.