Lesson Three / 08/04/2009

(Absent: Ji Eun Kang, Ji Wan Park, Kwang Jun Jang)

Lesson Summary

In the third lesson, we:

• Discussed Register and Style, in contrast.
• Examined what distinguishes less formal from more formal writing.
• Practised making less formal writing more formal.

It's worth emphasising:

• Formality and style are ways of being polite in written language where there is no opportunity to use your voice (intonation) to moderate more direct language.
• Some of the things that differentiate informal from formal language are: use or not of abbreviations, contractions, and idiomatic language; addressing correspondent through direct or indirect language; relative frequency of lexis (vocabulary) used; precision of detail.
• Formality is relative: it is impossible to say 'this is formal' or 'this is informal' writing. There are many degrees of formality (the way Queen Elizabeth is addressed is not the same as a bank manager, who is addressed differently from a parent, who is addressed differently from a close friend in pub); the key to effective writing is consistency of judgement within any one text.

The materials used for this lesson are attached below.

Self-study Practice

The homework for this lesson was to write a short introductory text about ING. It's often necessary to describe your company to others when initiating contact, so this is good practice for that. Please think about the degree of formality required when addressing strangers, and write appropriately given what was covered in this lesson. The texts can be put on the Practice Page accompanying this one. This is to be completed by Tuesday, April 14th.

Resources

Resources used in this lesson: