In addition to word origins, another way to think about how clusters of words impact style is register. This is a term from linguistics and essentially refers to word clusters or patterns in syntax (i.e., sentence order/arrangement) that frequently re-occur around a specific topic or tone: formality, discipline of study, workplace, industry, etc.
Writing in your academic discipline or industry means learning the appropriate register or registers (e.g., register for communication among co-workers may be a register slightly or even drastically different from register used in customer service; register for a lab report may be different from register for a test answer in Biology).
Finding the right register for your situation can be important; it can send a message that you are in solidarity with your audience (you are one of us) or that you have expertise on a subject (to know this language is to know this content). Using appropriate register is an important rhetorical skill.
Shifting and Mixing Registers
Shifting and mixing registers can also have rhetorical effect.
Rhetoric scholar Jeanne Fahnestock (2011, p. 87) notes that it could be as little as a word or it could be a phrase or sentence. For instance, a long academic passage with clusters of words like hypothesis, generality, explanation could suddenly have a word like “bullshit” in there. Such a word draws attention to itself not only by its own force, but by its contrast between a register that word normally occurs in compared to the register it is contrasting with. This is a shift in register.
Register mixing involves a more extensive integration between registers. Fahnestock (p. 88) cites the following example from a money market fund’s seminannual report:
The first six months of 2003 were a good period for both stocks and bonds. Interest rates continued to fall and stock prices rose broadly. In addition, new tax cut legislation was enacted and corporate earnings showed signs of improvement.
American Balanced Fund posted a total return of 10.0% for the six-month period ended June 30. The fund outpaced the Lipper Balanced Fund Index, which had a total return of 8.9%. Stocks, as measured by Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index, gained 11.8%. Bonds, as measured by the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index, rose 3.9%. The market indexes are unmanaged. (cited in Fahnestock; American Balanced Fund 2003, 1).
This is a similar move to what you were asked to do on the last page in your QSR sentence rewrite, no?
Register Mixing and Translingualism
You might also mix registers when mixing dialects or other languages. For instance, if you speak and write in a community that would respond well to versions of African American Vernacular English, New York Latino Spanish, or South Philly English, you could mix in words, phrases, or entire sentences inflected with a dialect or language.
Mixing registers through different kinds of languages that have a lot of associations with one’s identity can:
- make a point of emphasis (like the world “bullshit”)
- build solidarity with an audience that might also speak that language or dialect
- achieve various rhetorical aims that take advantage of the symbolizing effect of using a different language/dialect or just the rhetorical force from a given instance of that language/dialect as compared to the White Mainstream English version.
For example, to emphasize urgency:
I’m not sure we can do this. Is there any way to complete the report by the proposed deadline? We really gonna get dat jawn goin by den?
It might be even more subtle than this:
I’m not sure we can do this. Is der any way to complete da report by da proposed deadline? We really gonna get it done?
Registers are more commonly associated with really specialized language situations, but they effectively mean “a way of talking/writing” so there is much in common with translingualism and the act of using all of your linguistic resources to communicate in various ways in various settings.
Before clicking the “Click here to continue” button below, respond to the following question about the 2 paragraphs from the seminannual report. Here is the question:
What is the difference in information provided in paragraph 1 compared to paragraph 2? What does that tell you about mixing of registers and why it might have occurred?
I think that comparing the two paragraphs, the first is definitely easier to read. It is also full of positive notes that I imagine someone reading will find very satisfied with. Because of this juicy first paragraph, the readers now have an appetite to finish the article, they will still be able to digest the second paragraph even though it might be a little unsavory.
In paragraph 1, the register used in the sentences is something that a common reader could understand without much knowledge into the field. There wasnt the use of the percentages as in paragraph 2. In teh second paragraph, it might be more focused for those who work with the numbers and the common reader would not find it interesting as they have no idea about the past percentages and the history.
In paragraph one the information provided doesn’t contain any excitement or detail. While in paragraph two there are numbers and more formal words being used making the message seem stronger and smarter. But we see from these two paragraphs how the first is easier to understand but lacks details, while the second is harder to understand and contains many details.
In paragraph 1 the facts are summarized and explained in a simplistic style. Paragraph 2 is more fact based and information dense. Paragraph 1 helps keep the reader from getting bored of the text from the beginning.
The first paragraph is simpler, it makes it easier for the common non-specialized reader to read faster and gain understanding with ease. The second paragraph on the other hand, uses a very specific language related to the market that should be easieer to read for soemone with previous knowledhe in the field, a lot of information is given and the common reader might not be able to interpret it.
The first paragraph is much easier to read and overall more simple. The second paragraph uses more advanced words and a higher level of writing technicality. It is harder to interperet.
The registers were mixed in the example for two different audiences. The first was for the layperson who may have had a nontechnical reason for reading the report or a person who does not have the time to digest and analyze all of the figures. The second is much more technical and specific, and seems more appropriate for what one would expect. I don’t believe that the second paragraph is that out of reach for the average person because you can figure out what happened from simple context clues.
The first paragraph appears to use a register that would be ideal for individuals interested in the money market but with minimal technical knowledge regarding its workings. However, the second paragraph mixes the register meant for those with minimal knowledge as well as those who are highly conversant with the money market mechanisms. Nevertheless, mixing the two registers in the second paragraph would make even the less knowledgeable person to become more interested in the subject in question.
The first paragraph seemed to be targeted twoards an audience who wasn;t as involved in the economy and stock markets, wheras the second paragraph seemed to be targeted towards people who either work in this field or already have a lot of knowledge in it.
Paragraph 1 gave a broad idea of what happened. Paragraph 2 told exactly what happened. Depending on the reader, paragraph 1 may be more favorable and vice versa based on how they interpret information like this. Mixing has the possibility of appeasing both.
The register of the first paragraph seems to be ideal for those of us who either don’t do well with copious amounts of numbers and percentages or don’t care for them at all. The register of the second paragraph appears to be ideal for someone like an engineer or mathematician or a third year STEM or Econ major; someone who doesn’t mind the appearance of numbers and/or deals with them regularly.
The first paragraph is much easier to read than the second paragraph. The first paragraph includes quality information and is easy to understand, whereas, the second paragraph is a lot of complicated information for the average person to understand. This is really based on who the audience consists of.