Advanced Writing with English in Use

STYLE AND REGISTER

Inmattersofgraveim portance,st yle, not since rit y, is the vitalthing.

Osca rWilde

A Introduction

At theAdvanced level, you should of course aimto write
grammatically correct English.But is that enough?For
example, it is grammatically correct to write'Give me a
job!', butt hat is not the way to write a successfuljob
application.In fact, the employer is morelikely to forgive
a number of grammar or spellingmistakes than to
employ an applicant whose letterwas too rudeor too
informal.In the CAE exam, writingis assessed with this
in mind: what effect wouldt he piece of writing have on
the person whois going to read it?

The abilityto use the rightstyle,whetheryou arewrit ing
a business letter or a holidaypostcard,is one of the skills
assessed in Paper 2; it is also examined throughout
Paper 3.

But perhapsstyleis nott he best word: you donot
necessarily have to writestylishly. We couldinstead
speak ofregister:the styleappropriateto a particular
kind of writing.

1.0 Story

This murder mysteryin ten short texts is an exercise in
recognizing register.

1 First, identify the origin of each text by writing the

letterA-Jby thedescriptionsof thetexts. (Some of

the descriptionsdo not correspondto anytexts

given.) Whataspects of eachtext helped you to

decide?

Businessletter

Tou ristb rochure

Newspaperre vie w of restaurant _ _

Spoken:jobin te rvi e w_ _

ShortnewspaperrepOIt __

Spoken.politeconversa tion_ _

Bac kcoverofa novel

Infor maltelephoneconversati on

Advert isement

Loveletter

Policeofficer's re po rt_ _

Recipe _ _

12 • Writingsub-skills

Maincoursesat;"Iaximilien'srangefromduckinraspberry

vinegarsaucetoareallyexcellenthare,stillsheddmgItsshot-

gunpellets,andpresentedas aGaudiesquetower:shcesof

marvellouslytendersaddleontopofthebraisedleg(alittle

overdone),itselfrestingonbutterynoodles.AnotherspeCIality

ofthehouseistheAndalucianrabbitwith wildmushrooms

m 4 Returnth erabbit to thepan. Cove l'with

th e w in e. Se as on.Add the freshthymeand

simmer for 30 -40minuteswithth e lid011.

Addth emushroomsands tir w ell.

[!l

'Te ll me, MissLee, doyou have any prev io usexperi-

ence asa waitr e ss?'.

'Welt, I didsilverserviceat the RoyalHotelin Bognor

forfiveyears. That wasbefor e comingto~elcester.But

sinceI'vebeenhe reI'vebee n assistantchefInthe cantee n

atInte rnati onal De fence Systems.'. ')'

'A ndwhy have yoagiven in your aolicea II.D.S..

'Well , to tell youthe truth, it wasso~~picture,sI sawon

the television. And I realized that If 11 wasa tfor the

weapons w e w ere selli ngthe m.

I!l DearMr Ba ll

We were most impressedby your plans, whichwe

recei ved lastweek.

Our repre sentativein Europe,Colonel Lamont,

will be contactingyou uponhis arrivalin London.

Howmuch,did you say? This m ust be a bad line,I

thought you said5,000!...Sounds like an awful lotof

money for atummy ache! Fo reign ers, were they?

Wou ld n 't trust 'em if I were you. Justyoumakesure

y ou get th emoneyu p front, incash .. .He re, youdon't

thinkthey'retrying todo him in, do you?... That'dhe

w orth SO,n ot five.. .Tell yo uwhat,try someonHenry

Hungerfordfirst andsee what happens.

~wonderfulrestaurant, Ste fan. Do you know,Ithinkthi,S

ispossiblythebesthareI've ever e aten.And asfor.theSt

Emilion : Idoubtyo u' d findas g o oda bottleasthisa~;.­

wherein Paris.Ho ware yo u getting on w ith the rabb it.