REGISTER
Register = Style + Tone
Register is the combined effect of style and tone. My favorite example demonstrating different registers is that of a collegiate football player who, in the final home game of the season, accomplished a particularly violent tackle a hated rival, an action that secured the win for the home team. In the first register scenario, he is in the locker room discussing the tackle with his teammates who hail him as a hero. I will leave the wording to your imagination, but I suspect Socrates would deem this a low register. In the second register scenario, the player is relating his winning play to his mother over the telephone. She could not attend this important game, but she made him promise to call. His language is filled with contractions, regional expressions, and slang. Again, this is a fairly low register, but without profanity. The third scenario occurs a few weeks later when the coach asks the hero for a short written statement about the game and his role in it for a high school recruiting brochure the athletic department is producing. The language in the brochure will not contain contractions, regionalisms, nor much slang. This will be a much higher register.
I do not care for the terms formal and informal in reference to writing because many people mistakenly assume that formal writing is stilted and hard-to-read writing. To divide writing into two categories, I am more confident in the terms professional and personal.
In general--excluding advertising, fiction, and journalism--business and technical writing register tends to be professional as defined by these guidelines:
Abbreviations are used only after spelling out the term.
Adverbs are used sparingly and not misused. The words, hopefully and firstly are not used. Writers should carefully examine any -ly words.
Biased language is strictly avoided. Biased words for gender, age, disabilities, etc. are never used.
Contractions are never used unless specified by a client. Contractions lend an feeling of informality to documents, and if that is the desired effect, they may be used in some documents. However, the general rule should be to avoid contractions thereby avoiding possible confusion and errors.
First person is normally inappropriate except for relating personal experience as an example to support a point. For most documents generated for clients, personal experience will not be appropriate.
Rhetorical questions are poor style when used as a substitute for clearly stating a point. When short rhetorical questions are used as headings (usually in instructions), they are design choices. Generally even used to establish structure, rhetorical questions invite reader scorn and should be avoided in most letters, memos, and reports.
Second person used in a generic sense is inappropriate unless specified by a client (such as for an advertisement). When using second person not in a generic sense but actually referring to your reader, make sure that reader is identified before the first pronoun is used.
Slang, regional colloquial expressions, jargon, pretentious words, cliches, metaphors, and conversational language are avoided. Kids are baby goats, not children. Carbonated beverages do not need to be shortened to soda or pop if they must be mentioned in a company's annual report. Adding prepositions to verbs is both awkward sounding and unnecessary [I see these all the time in students' writing, I need to collect examples to share here.] Jargon and pretentious words intimidate readers and make the writing seem stilted and awkward. Cliches and metaphors do not translate to other languages and cultures. That also applies to different cultures within the USA.
Third person plural--the royal "we" is not recommended.Unless the document is written by a member of an organization to others in the organization and makes clear at the beginning of the document who is meant by the third person plural pronoun, it should not be used because it invited negative reader reactions.
Vague terms (especially verbs) when precise terms provide clarity are to be avoided. Vague terms that should be on any editing watch list include: the verb, to be and get and adjectives such as some, any, pretty, many, much, very, and lots. .
In general, business and technical writing register avoids the problems listed above, is reader-centered and illustrates "good-will" principles (Locker, 2006, chap. 2). Reader-centered, good-will writing will focus on the reader's needs, not those of the writer, find ways to soften bad news by offering possible alternatives (Locker, 2006, chap. 8), and use you-terms in a reasonable ratio to I-terms (Rodgers, 2001).
I do not care for the terms formal and informal in reference to writing because many people mistakenly assume that formal writing is stilted and hard-to-read writing. To divide writing into two categories, I am more confident in the terms professional and personal.
In general--excluding advertising, fiction, and journalism--business and technical writing register tends to be professional as defined by these guidelines:
Abbreviations are used only after spelling out the term.
Adverbs are used sparingly and not misused. The words, hopefully and firstly are not used. Writers should carefully examine any -ly words.
Biased language is strictly avoided. Biased words for gender, age, disabilities, etc. are never used.
Contractions are never used unless specified by a client. Contractions lend an feeling of informality to documents, and if that is the desired effect, they may be used in some documents. However, the general rule should be to avoid contractions thereby avoiding possible confusion and errors.
First person is normally inappropriate except for relating personal experience as an example to support a point. For most documents generated for clients, personal experience will not be appropriate.
Rhetorical questions are poor style when used as a substitute for clearly stating a point. When short rhetorical questions are used as headings (usually in instructions), they are design choices. Generally even used to establish structure, rhetorical questions invite reader scorn and should be avoided in most letters, memos, and reports.
Second person used in a generic sense is inappropriate unless specified by a client (such as for an advertisement). When using second person not in a generic sense but actually referring to your reader, make sure that reader is identified before the first pronoun is used.
Slang, regional colloquial expressions, jargon, pretentious words, cliches, metaphors, and conversational language are avoided. Kids are baby goats, not children. Carbonated beverages do not need to be shortened to soda or pop if they must be mentioned in a company's annual report. Adding prepositions to verbs is both awkward sounding and unnecessary [I see these all the time in students' writing, I need to collect examples to share here.] Jargon and pretentious words intimidate readers and make the writing seem stilted and awkward. Cliches and metaphors do not translate to other languages and cultures. That also applies to different cultures within the USA.
Third person plural--the royal "we" is not recommended.Unless the document is written by a member of an organization to others in the organization and makes clear at the beginning of the document who is meant by the third person plural pronoun, it should not be used because it invited negative reader reactions.
Vague terms (especially verbs) when precise terms provide clarity are to be avoided. Vague terms that should be on any editing watch list include: the verb, to be and get and adjectives such as some, any, pretty, many, much, very, and lots. .
In general, business and technical writing register avoids the problems listed above, is reader-centered and illustrates "good-will" principles (Locker, 2006, chap. 2). Reader-centered, good-will writing will focus on the reader's needs, not those of the writer, find ways to soften bad news by offering possible alternatives (Locker, 2006, chap. 8), and use you-terms in a reasonable ratio to I-terms (Rodgers, 2001).
For Discussion
Question=TBA
Copyright 2012
Ida L. Rodgers, See terms on Course Style Guide Home page
Copyright 2012
Ida L. Rodgers, See terms on Course Style Guide Home page