Understanding Style, Tone, and Register in Writing

Style: typical way of writing used by one particular person. It can refer to choice of words, tone, grammar, and narrative techniques.

Tone: general feeling or attitude toward the subject expressed in a piece of writing. It rather refers to the emotional or sensual content of a text. It creates a certain mood.

Register: choice of words, style, and grammar used by writers in a particular social context. It often reflects social status of the people. There are rules about what register is appropriate in particular situations.

Style

• formal - formal expressions, foreign words, specialist terms, objectivity, detachment, politeness, complete and complex sentences
• informal - informal and colloquial expressions, phrasal verbs, simple sentences, subjectivity, can contain slang and even rude or vulgar expressions, incomplete or grammatically wrong sentences and dialect
• literary - rhetorical devices, complex, rich vocabulary, use of imagery, not always explicit, often needs interpretation

Register

• formal - formal language, wide range of vocabulary
• informal - informal language, contractions, colloquial language

Tone

• informal / formal - objective / subjective - emotional / neutral - chatty - persuasive - superficial - serious - engaging - exciting - personal - affecting - conversational - knowledgeable - interesting - gripping - academic - sophisticated - intellectual - positive

Vocabulary - to have contrary opinions/attitudes views on... - to disapprove of.../what made it more difficult - to present the argument that/to persuade/to convince - to come to a decision – to compromise/to make a compromise - on condition that.../to be in a dilemma... - different cultural backgrounds - to be determined to/open to.../to be (un)willing to .../to be prepared - to be bound by tradition/customs of... - male dominance/attitude of dominance - to be(financially) (in)dependent on

Introduction - It has often been said that... - Many people seem to think that... - I have to agree with him/her on that… - I am not sure… - First of all…

Main Part - On the one hand… on the other hand... - I object to that… - I am convinced… - It seems to me that… - The next point I want to mention is… - Don’t forget that… - In my opinion… - First of all… - Furthermore… - This becomes clear when… - An example of this is… - The problem is that…

Conclusion - I come to the conclusion that… - After all… - To sum up… - All in all I think…

Describing style, tone and register - To make use of/to incorporate/to combine - to create a certain atmosphere by using… - Everyday/colloquial/informal/vulgar language - Formal/literary/archaic/slang expressions - Eloquent/witty/elevated/sophisticated/academic/concise/objective/impersonal style - Complex/simple sentences – Imagery - Vivid/animated/exaggerated language - Humorous/ironic/serious/critical/friendly/positive tone - Polite/rude/blunt way of addressing somebody

The text is a… - It was written in… by… - The tone is... - The author makes fun of/distances himself/herself from - The description of the... create an atmosphere of - She/he is faced with the dilemma of... - Therefore... there is... - ...is always associated with - On the one/other hand... - At the beginning... - Later she learns, changes... - At the end... - The way... is presented suggest... - The author uses... in order to... - It is striking that... - the reader is turn between/experiences... because...