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Grammar and vocabulary in professional contexts must meet requirements of style and tone
THE NATURE OF APPROPRIACY
The grammar and vocabulary that enable a particular thing to be said correctly in English is generally quite flexible (see 80. How to Paraphrase). However, some choices fit particular situations more suitably than others. For example, it is suitable in everyday conversation to speak of lions, but in technical zoological writing to speak of Felis leo. And in a letter demanding payment of unpaid bills it may be more suitable to speak of an outstanding sum, in order not to upset the addressee. It is choices like these that are commonly called “appropriacy”.
The first of the above examples illustrates a type of appropriacy known as “style”. The second illustrates “tone”. In this post I wish to explore these two different types of appropriacy in more depth. In the process, I hope to present and illustrate a wide range of potentially useful vocabulary and grammar.
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STYLISTIC APPROPRIACY
Wording that is stylistically appropriate is typical of the style (or type, or “register”) of writing where it is located (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #1). Styles are defined by such features as their subject matter, purpose and medium of communication. In the other parts of this blog where style features, the focus is mainly on the particular kind known as “academic”. Most of the language that is mentioned as appropriate to this style is vocabulary, such as obtain rather than get, large for big, numerous for a lot of, and encounter for come across (see 108. Formal and Informal Words).
Academic writing also makes stylistically appropriate grammatical choices. Some verb forms, such as the passive voice, enable unwanted pronouns like we to be avoided (see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”). Indirect questions are generally preferred to direct ones for introducing a topic (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing). Coordinating conjunctions like and, but and so are not normally found at the start of a sentence (see 25. Conjunction Positioning).
Other styles of writing include literary, legal, journalistic, advisory and marketing. One characteristic of literary writing is its freedom to report historical speech in direct rather than indirect form (see 282. Features of History Writing, ‘#13). Another is a greater likelihood of poetic words like host (= crowd), mortals (= humans) and smite (= hit).
Legal writing has numerous specialized words, such as persons (= people), parties (= people who have made an agreement) and offence/felony (= crime). Journalistic writing likes short words like pay (= wages), mar (= spoil), ban (= prohibit) and woo (= try to persuade with promises). A grammatical feature is dropped the before people-describing nouns (e.g. … singer Bob Marley – see 77. Apposition).
Advisory writing is common in government leaflets and product instructions. You and your are common, as are imperative verbs and modals like should (see 128 Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing). There are often headings with a question word and infinitive verb, e.g. What to Do Next (see below).
Marketing texts, which seek to promote a good image, present products and services in the most positive possible way. As a result, positive-sounding words are much more common than negative-sounding ones. The messages cannot usually be called untruthful, but sometimes they are so close to it that they can mislead.
Examples of typical but possibly dubious marketing language include break to describe a broadcasting interruption for advertisements (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #2), new for products that have merely been changed (often for the worse), and price changes or adjustments instead of the more precise increases. London Transport notices refer to a good service when they mean normal and to track improvement instead of maintenance. A problem with this last is ambiguity: it is easily understood as improvement of the nature of the track when in fact it might only mean restoration of its optimum condition.
Marketing language of a less controversial kind includes imperative verbs that highlight an advantage of a product (Travel free of charge), and positive-sounding adjectives in restaurant menus (a delicious combination of exotic flavours).
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TONAL APPROPRIACY
While style is a consequence of the type of writing that one is engaged in, merely distinguishing one type from another, tone is a consequence of a writer thinking about emotions that need to be aroused or avoided in the reader. A particular point may be makeable with different tones within a single style, though some tones may help a particular style to be identified. Tonal choices may reflect the culture of the speakers of the language (just like some words – see 137. Words that Reflect English Culture).
The following tone types are important:
1. Polite
Polite language seeks to prevent the reader being offended. Various ways of communicating politely are mentioned elsewhere within these pages. In spoken interactions, polite requests often begin I would appreciate it if… (see 190. Special Uses of “it“, #4) or I would be grateful if… . Questions aimed at gaining information – which run the risk of irritating the addressee – will sound politer if asked indirectly rather than directly. The following, for example, are politer equivalents of What is your name? and Where is the library?:
(a) Could you tell me (what) your name (is)?
(b) I would like to know where the library is.
For more about this kind of question, see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing.
In professional writing, a common situation where polite language is likely to be necessary is discussion of controversial ideas, for example within academic literature reviews. What especially requires politeness here is expressing disagreement with another writer’s opinion – an obvious potential cause of hurt feelings. The Guinlist post 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing in Formal Contexts suggests that it is more polite to disagree with words than with people. Thus, instead of writing that Jones (2016) is simplistic or unconvincing, one can say that the argument or opinion is.
Moreover, the language expressing the actual disagreement is typically restrained. Cannot agree is more likely than disagree (because it suggests some effort has been made to agree). Unconvincing sounds politer than simplistic because it is vaguer about the reason for rejection. Similarly useful are debatable and questionable.
Another strategy, often mentioned in Business English coursebooks, is to put not very before the positive equivalent of a negative word. Thus, instead of useless, it sounds politer to say not very useful (see 284. Words with a Surprising Meaning, #6), and difficult can become not very easy.
For more examples of negative words, see 13. Hidden Negatives, 106. Word-like Suffixes and 146. Some Important Prefix Types. For some other ways of sounding polite, see 156. Mentioning What the Reader Knows Already, #4 and #5.
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2. Image-Conscious
Sometimes one has to say something negative about oneself. Writers who are worried about this causing their reader to judge them unfavourably have various ways of presenting the negative point in the best possible light. Not very is again useful. Negative verbs like have not received can be put into the to form after APPEAR (We appear not to have received…). Blunt words like late, lost and debt can be replaced by words that sound somehow less accusing, such as delayed, mislaid and outstanding sum.
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3. Friendly
Sounding friendly is a particular goal of marketing language. One of the most ubiquitous means of achieving it is “personal” words like my and your. Most computer users will be familiar with the name My Computer that Microsoft used to give to its file-exploring program (along with folder names like My Music).
Your is very commonly linked with consumer products. Who has not encountered phrases like your new phone or your smart TV, even when these have been purchased for somebody else? Your is also increasingly popular with information documents like bank statements and bills. Even in academic writing, there are some advocates of using you more than is traditional – for example in laboratory instructions – in order to sound friendlier.
One problem with such words is that they do not always ring true. My computer assumes that the user of the computer is always its owner. The much more neutral this, which I personally always used to overwrite my with, leaves the ownership open. Thankfully, Microsoft too now seem to have stopped using my. However, expressions like your bill continue to proliferate. I find this particular one irksome because I see the bill as the sender’s not mine!
The problem is further illustrated by an experience I had some years ago, when I sent a short piece about a degree course I was involved in to my university’s marketing department. I wrote that students would do various things, but when the piece was published, this word had become you. I phoned to complain that you referred to the reader, who might be a parent or teacher of students rather than the students themselves, but was told that using you was “corporate policy”. Sounding friendly, it seemed, was more important than being accurate.
Not all ways of sounding friendly, however, are problematic. For example, much marketing literature these days uses questions as topic headings instead of the nouns that are typical of headings elsewhere (see 178. How to Write a Heading). Some are direct questions (e.g. Who should I contact? What to do?) but many drop their question mark to become indirect (see the end of 105. Questions with a to Verb). Questions reflect the reader’s point of view rather than the writer’s. In most cases they are not isolated but located within lists of so-called “FAQs” (frequently asked questions).
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4. Status-Influenced
Language changes according to whether it is addressed to somebody in a superior, equal or inferior position. For example, if you are seeking to have an action performed by a superior, you are likely to use a request, whereas one needing to be performed by an inferior is likely to result in a command. Consider these words uttered by a student to a lecturer:
(c) Would you mind looking again at what I have written?
A lecturer wanting a student to do the same thing could easily begin I want you to look or please look (please seems to be becoming more associated in English with commands than requests!). A student speaking to another student, on the other hand, might prefer a suggestion (why don’t you look).
Status-influenced variation is also seen with accusations and complaints. Superiors can generally be more negative in their language than inferiors. Consider these words uttered by an employer to an employee:
(d) You are failing to act in an appropriate fashion.
An employee making the same point to their employer would need to avoid the negative failing, a possible solution being:
(e) We wonder whether a different approach might be possible.
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