Have you heard the term ‘register‘ in relation to language? It’s an important aspect of how we use language but, if we are not careful, we may not pay it enough attention.
The best way to understand register is to think about spoken language, to start with. We automatically select a different register for various social situations. For example, you would choose very different words and maybe even alter your grammar when speaking to your boss, your family, or a stranger in the street. For more formal situations we tend to use more academic or professional language and we avoid slang or colloquialisms. When chatting with family and friends we are relaxed, using casual terms and often speaking quite directly. Of course, different industries and professions all have their own standards and requirements with regard to language. Imagine, for example, how differently a lawyer would speak compared with an actor, or an accountant compared with a musician.
We tend to modulate our register when speaking without even thinking about it. This is because we get lots of practice. It becomes second nature.
We also need to be careful about register when writing, however. Again, every profession has its own conventions, with the Law being perhaps one of the most old fashioned. When we are being more formal, or extra polite, we often change our word choice and even our grammar to create more distance. For example, we might begin and end a formal letter as follows:
Dear Sirs….Yours faithfully…
Even emails require careful thought. If we are contacting all our colleagues to arrange an office party, it might be acceptable to write:
Hey guys…
but an email to a client, even one we know well, would probably require more formality, such as:
Good afternoon…
Register does not apply only to greetings and farewells, of course. Word choice and sentence structure is important for entire documents such as business reports, essays, briefs, contracts, proposals and white papers.
If you need to produce a written document, it’s always wise to ask yourself whether you know the appropriate register. If you’re not sure, you can often check some similar documents, written by other people, to find out what sort of vocabulary is used and how formal (usually distanced) the language should be.
Do you often have to change your register for different types of writing? Let me know in the comments!
