Control register and tone through vocabulary, matching the level of formality and the attitude to the purpose and audience

What this dot point is asking

This dot point is about two closely linked qualities that your vocabulary controls: register and tone. Register is the level of formality of the language, ranging from very casual (a message to a friend) to very formal (a letter to an official). Tone is the writer's attitude to the subject and reader, such as serious, warm, urgent, sarcastic or respectful. Both are set largely by word choice, and both must suit the task and stay consistent. Choosing the right register and tone, and not slipping out of them, is rewarded across Situational and Continuous Writing and is exactly what a "wrong register" comment penalises.

The answer

Register is the level of formality

Register runs along a scale from informal to formal, and vocabulary is the main thing that places you on it:

• Informal: contractions ("don't", "I'm"), slang ("guys", "stuff", "cool"), phrasal verbs and chatty phrases ("a load of"). Suited to messages and notes to friends.
• Neutral: everyday standard English with no slang and no heavy formality. Suited to most general writing.
• Formal: no contractions or slang, more precise and often longer words ("dissatisfaction" not "being fed up"), full forms ("cannot" not "can't"), and impersonal phrasing. Suited to official letters, reports and serious articles.

The task tells you which register to use: who is the audience and how formal is the situation. A complaint to a company is formal; an email to a close friend is informal.

Tone is the writer's attitude

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.

Match both to purpose and audience

Before writing, decide the register and tone the task needs. Ask: who is the audience (a friend, a teacher, an official, the public), what is the purpose (to complain, persuade, inform, entertain), and how serious is the subject. A proposal to your principal needs a formal register and a respectful, persuasive tone; a narrative can use a more varied, even informal tone where it suits the story. The marks for "task fulfilment" depend on getting this match right.

Keep them consistent

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.

Examples in context

Example 1. The same complaint, two registers. Told to a friend, a complaint about a cancelled bus might read: "Ugh, the bus just didn't show up and I was stuck for ages." Written to the bus company, the same event becomes: "The scheduled service failed to arrive, leaving me stranded for a considerable period." The facts are identical, but the second uses formal vocabulary, no contractions and an impersonal, measured tone suited to an official complaint. A candidate who keeps the friendly version in a formal letter has misjudged the register, which is one of the most heavily penalised errors in Situational Writing.

Example 2. Tone carrying the writer's attitude. Two report sentences describe the same canteen: "The canteen could benefit from a wider menu and faster service" and "The canteen is a shambles, with terrible food and endless queues." Both convey dissatisfaction, but the first has a constructive, professional tone that a school would act on, while the second is hostile and would read as rude in a formal report. Choosing the measured wording shows control of tone, which matters as much as the information itself when the purpose is to persuade someone in authority to act.

Try this

• Cue. Decide the register and tone for an email asking a teacher for an extension on an assignment. The audience is a teacher and the purpose is a polite request, so use a formal register (no slang or contractions) and a respectful, apologetic tone, not a casual or demanding one.

• Cue. Spot the register slip in this formal report sentence: "The new system is way better and the old one was kind of useless." "Way better" and "kind of useless" are casual; replace them with formal vocabulary such as "considerably more effective" and "inadequate" to keep a consistent formal register.

• Cue. Rewrite "We are not happy and we want this fixed now" from a complaint so the tone is firm but polite. Soften the demanding tone while keeping the firmness: "We would be grateful if this matter could be resolved promptly, as we remain dissatisfied with the situation."