英文日記和漢語日記一樣，是用來記敘一天中所發生的有意義的事情或對將來的打算等。日記可分為記事、議論、描寫及抒情等。

　　記事型是用英語記述當天自己生活學習中發生的事情。

　　議論型是對生活中的某一事情或情況現象談自己的看法，發表議論。

　　描寫型或抒情型，則是對某人物事物的特征做細致的描述，或針對某事物抒發自己的感情。

　　１．格式：

　　一般是在左上角記上當天日期，星期，時間的排列法與書信一致，星期寫在日期之后；右上角寫上當天的天氣情況，表示天氣情況的詞一般是形容詞，如：fine （晴朗的），cold （寒冷的），snowy（下雪），sunny（陽光充足的），rainy（下雨的），cloudy（陰天的）等。日記的小標題寫在下一行，也可省略不寫。

　　２．時態：

　　寫日記的時間一般是在下午、晚上，有時也可以在第二天補寫。因此，日記中所記述的事情通常發生在過去，常用一般過去時；但當記述天氣、描寫景色或展望未來時，可以用一般現在時或一般將來時。寫法大致和寫漢語日記相同，都是在正文之前有日期、星期幾及當天的天氣情況。注意內容表達要清楚連貫、準確。

　　下面是一篇關于英語日記范文。

　　 January 18, 2011 Friday Sunny

　　I am free now as I am spending my winter holiday.

　　Although we have some homework, we can finish them in several days. And the rest time we can make good use of. My god! We have been very tired after hard studying. In winter holidays, I want to have full sleep and eat good food in order to replenish myself. Last but not the least, I will have a good rest.

　　I have rested for a week. I began to feel bored. So I went out with my friends. They are my best friends in the middle school. We didn’t go to someplace special. We just saw the other. We had lunch together. While we were having lunch, we were still talking about the new school and new friends. Yes! A year later, we have grown riper. And we learned much more things and got new life. We haven’t enough time to play, to waste and to lose the way. We only have two years. Two years to go, we will get the real life which belongs to us.