hey english one the purpose of this recording is to help you understand expectations of formality and writing through something called academic register when i refer to register i mean a scale of formality from informal to neutral to formal in writing for the purposes of understanding a scale let's say one is the most informal kind of writing you can do and that 10 is the most formal kind of writing they can do formal is the suit in time very informal is the relaxed hawaiian shirt there are lots of things that can affect the formality of register one of which is the pronouns that you choose to use in writing if you have done analysis analysis excuse me in the past with literature or poetry or songs or plays it is likely that your teacher encouraged you in your analysis to use third person pronouns because it's generally more formal the use of first or second generally lowers the formality of writing and register things like colloquial language slang jargon regional language can also affect the formality of your writing for example in the south we use a phrase that says y'all it's a contraction for you all we don't use this all over the country or when i was in middle school and moved here to lake travis my friend moved from new york his mom would ask us at his house hey do you want to pop a pop which means a soda but in the south we call that a coke so what you say and who can understand what you're trying to say with regional slang and jargon kind of language can also affect the formality of your register the way that you structure sentences can also affect register sentences that are punctuated with periods declarative sentences are very formal those that are punctuated with exclamation points or maybe they're even sentence fragments are generally less formal let's be clear there's certainly a time when sentence fragments are perfectly allowed and okay you just have to know which register to use them in an author's diction or word choice can also indicate formality for register the words an author chooses to use if i use a less descriptive adjective let's say i was having a nice day that's probably mid-register it's fine but if i say that i was having a glorious incredible life altering day that ups the register of my writing because the adjectives are stronger let's go through three categories of thinking about register i want to train your brains into understanding low middle and high and which categories fall in between there's also a page for this to go into your english one notebook in low register reading there's plenty of slang jargon or colloquial language it's perfectly allowed it's perfectly fine to break grammar rules especially without any kind of purpose any kind of pronoun first second or third person is totally fine variety of sentences including sentence fragments let's say academic register one is like a text to your best friend of course you can break grammar rules you might not actually even be using words to communicate maybe you're sending a picture or a gif or an emoji so it's perfectly fine this kind of writing sounds unprofessional but is still personal mid-register writing is probably the vast majority of writing that you're going to do in the world including some academic writing it's okay to use colloquial language here but only if your audience really understands it's universally understood you can really only break grammar rules here if they have a specific intention let's say if i'm going to reach out to my team of english 1 teachers and we're working through something tough so i choose to spell something strangely and put it in all caps i'm definitely breaking a mechanic's role but i'm doing it with the purpose of having some humor that's the effect any kind of pronouns are fine first second third person any kind of writing sentences are usually welcome here let's just make sure they're complete sentences this kind of writing sounds professional but it's still personal this is expository writing persuasive writing this is emails that you write to your friends or teachers or coaches or other people this is the vast majority of writing that we do every day in the world we also have high register writing so if a one is a text to your best friend a level 10 might look like a literary analysis research paper with a works cited page and an annotated bibliography and lots of highly academic language we probably won't write quite that formula this year most analysis that we do will be about a level seven or eight we're not using any colloquial language with high register writing those grammar rules are really strictly followed third person pronouns only because we essentially want to remove that sort of personal aspect keep it completely professional almost robotic sounding and almost completely declarative sentences in this level of register so be training your brain low middle high all are appropriate it's not that one register is better or worse than the other writing is not like that it's not good or bad writing is complex and all of these kinds of writing are perfectly acceptable we simply need to know what our audience is and what our purpose is and when to use them let's say you're going to email a teacher that you just met you don't know them super well it would probably best to keep that register a little bit formal but still personal so maybe a level five or six if you're going to reach out to a coach or teacher from last year that you know and you really get along well with them it's okay to lower the register to maybe a level three or four you have an established relationship so it doesn't have to be quite as formal that expectation you already know each other let's say you're going to reach out to a teacher that you've known for a long time but maybe you don't get along with each other let's keep it strictly professional and very formal remove as much tone as possible so nothing gets misinterpreted if you're reaching out having communication with people that you don't get along with i highly encourage you to always up the register in formality so that nothing gets misconstrued in tone let's say you're going to text your best friend completely up to you any register and low register is appropriate maybe a level zero you might not even be sending actual words to your friend that's perfectly fine and acceptable you can break grammar rules you can spell things strangely in complete sentences all those things are totally fine now if you're texting someone you just met maybe you're working on a group project together let's maybe make it a little more formal still personal because you want them to be able to get to know you slightly and since you don't know them yet make it a little more professional let's say a level four to five if you're going to write an essay for me maybe we're analyzing a piece of poetry or a short story or a novel that's high register writing somewhere based on the expectation and your abilities as a writer and what you have accessible to you that's probably level seven through ten say you're reaching out to an administrator this year ms garringer is here for a slasher mr butler that's probably like a level five to six it can still be personal but professional mr i was kind enough to share an example of a student reaching out to her missing the first day of class so her student is very formal in the writing and you can pause this for a second to read that and capture it they are sincere and apologetic in their tone they were almost overly apologetic but very very very formal in this particular register this is probably an example of what not to do when you're reaching out to your teachers for formality we can see that jon jones here is very relaxed spelling things strangely lots of exclamation points lacking capitalization and also being perhaps way too familiar with a teacher this is certainly an example of what not to do when we're reaching out to our teachers we can keep it personal but professional always err on the side of caution level five probably but we can see what a level one looks like again we can change that information that's very very informal to be simply now more formal it's like that you're going to have to reach out to a teacher this year and advocate for having a grade changed or please remove a missing assignment for me you can pause and read this one slightly to see how that information from the last slide was transformed into a very like kind neutral professional but personal register it's totally normal for you to advocate to your teachers for this kind of thing professional email registers have very specific requirements as well there's a subject line your greeting we use proper nouns and capitalization we're always capitalizing the personal pronoun i complete punctuation in sentences and having a sign off this is what comprises a really professional email so it's not just what we say it's also how it looks unnoticed the message is the same here i will always find you versus i will always find you it's much scarier and more intense here because font matters it changes the register of our writing and how our audience perceives what we have to say when it comes to font we're going to be using really standard fonts for academic writing things like helvetica ariel times new roman we're not going to use something like pretty and colorful like comic sans for academic writing that might be really great for a poster or maybe a digital media project or something along those lines when the visual changes how you receive something or something like broadway and the color so image font and color also helps develop professionalism and register something else that's super important to register is visually how we communicate texts can be written and they can be visual so the primal profile pictures and avatars that you have effect register and how people perceive you we see spongebob register level zero to one he's silly it's not a very credible photo and most importantly from that image i can't identify who that person actually is so if you know that your profile picture avatar for schoology and google is something like this i really encourage you to consider changing that to up the register in tone of your professionalism now that you're a high school student look we see moving up slightly register four to five these are friendly faces maybe we're not exactly sure who the person in the picture is as far as their profile is concerned but certainly friendly and much more appropriate and then you see way very very professional headshot she's beautifully dressed her hair and makeup she has a suit on it's like a beautiful professional headshot she's gorgeous very friendly professional and very clearly identifiable so again you should really consider changing your schoology picture in google picture if you know it's something that's not quite professional for register so quick summary here for you let's remember that register doesn't equal good or bad a level 10 isn't necessarily better than a level one they all have their purpose all kinds of writing all kinds of visual and written text some are simply more relaxed and less formal than others it will be your job this year as you listen to me give you expectations for formality and writing to look at things and say i believe this is high register writing or hey look this like site can be standard mid register oh you know that's a little bit lower on the register scale less formal right it'll be your job to receive those expectations from me as you continue to write for me this year