Week 5

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Tone and Register

What is Tone?

"Tone in writing refers to the writer's attitude toward the reader and the subject of the message. The overall tone of a written message affects the reader just as one's tone of voice affects the listener in everyday exchanges." (Ober 88, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/652/01/ )

Tone is present in all communication, including writing. The language you use when you write or message a friend, your professor,your grandmother or a company will all vary because the audience and their expectations will be different. Your tone reflects your attitude as a writer and how the reader will view the message. Therefore, it is important to convey the correct tone in your written communication. This is done, primarily in the words we chose when we write.

For general business letters it is good to have a friendly and efficient tone. You don't want to be so informal that you slip into slang and overly familiar language. On the other hand you don't want to be so stiff and formal in your writing that you come across as cold, distant, and un-cooperative. There are a number of ways you can do this.

1. Aim for the kind of tone you would use in ordinary conversations.

2. Chose your words carefully.It is much easier to be mis-understood in writing than it is in conversation.

You need to make sure that what you write can be clearly understood. You don't want any ambiguity.

3. Use personal pronouns. This will make your writing feel friendly.

4. Use appropriate greetings and closings.

5. Write in the active voice. It makes the 'doer' clearer and your writing more personable.

You need to consider a number of things before you start to write.

1. Why am I writing this?

2. Who am I writing to?

3. What kind of tone do I want to express?

Activity

Below you will find three activities. In the first activity you should re-arrange the words to make sentences commonly used in business correspondences.

In the second activity you will find a letter from a student. You need to re-write the student's letter in a more polite form and also write a response from the professor.

In the second activity you will find a business letter. The tone used in the letter is not appropriate. Re-write the letter so that the appropriate tone is used.

When you have finished the activities post them on your wiki. Add a reflective journal entry for this week.

Sort out the jumbled words below to make six sentences typical of business correspondence. Add capital letters and punctuation as necessary.

1. grateful / soon / a / as / we / for / would / possible / reply / as / be

2. for / find / please / cheque / $49.50 / an / enclosed

3. further / please / if / us / information / you / any / contact / need

4. april / your / you / letter / thank / 5 / on / for

5. you / we / forward / to / from / look / hearing

6. price list / enclosed / have / a / catalogue / our / I / spring / and

A student has written to their professor to complain about her grade. Re-write the student's

letter and also write a response from the professor.

Teacher,

I saw my grade this morning. What did I do??? I was so shocked when I saw C+.

Kim Su Bin got a B+ and I did more in class than her. Please, check again.

Park Su Jin

Rewrite the following request for payment in a more polite form.

Dear Sir,

You have owed us $500.00 since February, which means you havent paid us for three months.

We have written to your twice and you havent bothered to answer us, yet youve been a customer for years. Anyway,

we re not going to put up with this, so if you dont tell us why

you havent paid, or send the money you owe us in ten days,

we ll sue you. After all, we ve got bills to pay too, and besides we explained our rules for giving credit, i.e. payment on due dates some time ago.

Yours, etc.

R. Lancaster (mr)

(taken from ' Correspondence Workbook' A. Ashley, Oxford University Press)

Links

While many of the conventions in business writing remain the same there may be some difference that you need to consider depending on who you are writing to. Below are some links to help you when dealing with English business correspondence with Chinese, North American and Indian audiences.

* http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/676/01/ (When writing for a Chinese business audience)

* http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/651/01/ (When writing for a North American business audience)

* http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/674/01/ (When writing for an Indian business audience)