Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
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EnglishTwo texts, two viewpoints30 min★★★ difficulty

Choosing your level of formality on purpose

Standard English is not 'posh' English and informal is not 'bad' English. Each is right somewhere. This lesson is about controlling the dial deliberately, which is exactly what the GCSE writing marks reward.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Consciously control levels of formality, including through the use of Standard English, and know when it is appropriate to use

Key learning points

  • • Same message, three registers
  • • Standard English is not superior speech
  • • The markers of formality
  • • Deliberate slips for effect

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

consciouslycontrollevelsformalitystandard

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Choosing your level of formality on purpose

An English teaching video on this topic from BBC Bitesize - GCSE Revision Support. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Consciously control levels of formality, including through the use of Standard English, and know when it is appropriate to use

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should know that writing changes depending on who will read it.

Recap: Comparing two writers' viewpoints
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Register
The level of formality a piece of writing uses.
Standard English
The agreed grammar and vocabulary used in formal and public writing.
Dialect
The vocabulary and grammar of a particular region or community.
Colloquial
Everyday, conversational language.
Contraction
A shortened form such as don't or we'll, usually informal.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Reading the register

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Same message, three registers

To a friend: 'the bus never turned up again, I was raging.' To a school newsletter: 'the 8.05 service failed to arrive for the third time this week.' To the bus company: 'I am writing to report repeated non-arrival of the 8.05 service and to request a response within ten working days.' Every version is competent. Only one is right for each reader.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Standard English is not superior speech

Dialect forms like 'I were stood there' follow consistent rules in the communities that use them; they are not errors of thinking. What Standard English gives you is access: it is the register public institutions expect, so being able to switch into it is power. Switching is the skill, not abandoning how you speak.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Which version suits a complaint to a company?

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Contractions such as 'don't' generally signal...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Controlling your own

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

The markers of formality

Formality rises when you avoid contractions, choose precise nouns over 'stuff' and 'things', use the passive where the actor does not matter, and keep sentences structured rather than trailing. It falls with contractions, direct address, dashes and questions to the reader. You can raise or lower it a notch at a time.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Deliberate slips for effect

Good writers sometimes drop one informal phrase into a formal piece to make a point land: 'The council's report runs to ninety pages. Nobody read it.' That works because everything around it is controlled. If the whole piece wobbles between registers, it reads as an accident instead of a choice.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Dialect grammar is best described as...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

A single informal sentence in a formal article works when...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Standard English is a register, not a measure of intelligence.
  • Longer words do not make writing more formal - precision does.
  • Formal does not mean unclear or padded with jargon.
  • One deliberate informal line works only if the rest is consistent.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

What ____ English gives you is access: it is the register public institutions expect, so being able to switch into it is power.

____ rises when you avoid contractions, choose precise nouns over 'stuff' and 'things', use the passive where the actor does not matter, and keep sentences structured rather than trailing.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Choosing your level of formality on purpose

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Register means...

  2. 2. Which raises formality?

  3. 3. 'Colloquial' describes language that is...

  4. 4. Being able to switch into Standard English matters because...

  5. 5. Which is the most formal opening?

  6. 6. Mixing registers by accident makes writing seem...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Extract

The last bus

The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.

She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.

Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.

Original extract written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

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Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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