The Banality of Formal Writing

A PhD student argues that 'formal writing' is fundamentally about adhering to prescribed forms rather than achieving seriousness or propriety. Drawing an analogy to formal logic, the author contends that formal writing enforces specific structural rules while informal writing imposes no such constraints. The piece critiques how academic and educational systems penalize writers for deviating from form even when content is coherent and insightful. The author connects this phenomenon to broader human tendencies toward rule-following and diffusion of responsibility, referencing Arendt's 'Banality of Evil' and the Milgram experiment to argue that blind adherence to formal writing norms is a kind of thoughtless conformity.