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Vocabulary and Language Use
Quick questions on Register and tone explained: O-Level English
3short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is register is the level of formality?Show answer
Register runs along a scale from informal to formal, and vocabulary is the main thing that places you on it:
What is tone is the writer's attitude?Show answer
Tone is the feeling behind the words: how the writer comes across and how the reader is meant to feel. The same information can be delivered in a tone that is calm or angry, warm or cold, serious or light. Vocabulary carries the tone: "the staff were unhelpful" is measured, while "the staff were utterly useless" is hostile. In most O-Level tasks the safest tone is controlled and appropriate to purpose: firm but polite in a complaint, warm and encouraging in a speech, serious in an article on a grave topic.
What is keep them consistent?Show answer
The most common fault is not the wrong register but an inconsistent one: a formal letter that suddenly uses slang, or a serious article that turns chatty for a sentence. Each slip jars the reader and weakens the writing. Once you have set a register and tone, hold them across the whole piece, and proofread for the odd casual word ("guys", "stuff", "kids", "a lot of") that has crept into formal writing, or the over-stiff phrase that has crept into a friendly one.
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