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

Register in real tasks: email, letter, article

Formality is a dial, not a switch. This lesson practises setting it deliberately for three tasks you will actually be given, and shows how the same point sounds in each.

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

  • • The same point at three settings
  • • The markers that set the dial
  • • Holding the register to the end
  • • Formal does not mean stiff

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 18 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 18 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 18

Watch first

Register in real tasks: email, letter, article

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 18

Before we start

What you already know

You know what Standard English is and when it is expected.

Recap: Choosing your level of formality on purpose
3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

Register
The level of formality chosen to suit an audience and situation.
Standard English
The form of English used in formal writing and expected in exams.
Contraction
A shortened form such as don't or it's; usually avoided in formal writing.
Address
How you speak to the reader: named, plural, or not at all.
Hedging
Softening a claim - 'may', 'appears to' - to sound measured rather than certain.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

One point, three registers

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

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

The same point at three settings

The point: the library's opening hours do not suit students. Formal letter: 'I am writing to ask the council to review the library's opening hours, which currently exclude students who finish school at half past three.' Article: 'Our library shuts its doors at exactly the moment the town's teenagers are free to use it.' Message to a friend: 'library's shut by the time we get out, it's useless.' All three are honest; only the first two are appropriate for a public audience.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

The markers that set the dial

Four things do most of the work. Contractions - 'do not' against 'don't'. Address - 'Dear Councillor Hughes' against 'Hi'. Vocabulary - 'review' against 'have a look at'. Sentence completeness - full sentences against fragments. You can move the dial by changing those four alone, without changing your argument at all.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

Which opening suits a formal letter to a councillor?

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

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
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

Changing 'have a look at' to 'review' shifts...

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Choosing and holding a register

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

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

Holding the register to the end

The commonest slip is starting formally and drifting: a careful opening paragraph, then 'and to be honest it's a bit of a joke'. Read your final paragraph first when you check: that is where the drift shows. In a formal task, keep the strongest feeling in the argument rather than in the vocabulary - 'this excludes the very people the service was built for' is stronger, and more formal, than calling it a joke.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Formal does not mean stiff

Formal writing still uses rhythm, and it can still be direct: 'Two hours. That is all the time a student has between the last bell and the library's closing time.' No contractions, no slang, no shouting - and far more forceful than a stack of long words. Overloaded vocabulary ('I am writing to communicate my utmost dissatisfaction') reads as insincere, which loses the reader you were trying to persuade.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

The commonest register mistake is...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

'I am writing to communicate my utmost dissatisfaction' fails because it...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Formal does not mean using the longest word you know.
  • Slang is not wrong in itself - it is wrong for the wrong audience.
  • Contractions are fine in an article and out of place in a formal letter.
  • Rhetorical questions do not make writing formal; they only change pace.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

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

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Register in real tasks: email, letter, article

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

  1. 1. Register means...

  2. 2. Which is a contraction?

  3. 3. Hedging language such as 'appears to' makes a claim sound...

  4. 4. In an article, contractions are...

  5. 5. 'Two hours. That is all the time a student has.' is...

  6. 6. When checking register, read which part first?

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

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

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover

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