We get a lot of questions from quaerants who are concerned about the use of "formal" English, and I would really like to know how best to answer such questions. What should we tell them? There's no such thing as formal English? It's a cultural thing and therefore off-topic? It's just a matter of style (which is usually the case) and therefore off-topic? All of these options seem unsatisfactory to me, and I don't know how best to advise them. What should we do?
Please don't kick this into the chat rooms. I find them very difficult to use. It wouldn't be so bad if they were threaded.