Exercises
1Rewrite in formal register: "They've done loads to cut emissions."
Formal: no contraction, no colloquial "loads", passive or nominalised structure.
2Rewrite informally: "It has been established that regular exercise has a positive effect on mental health."
Informal: direct, personal, colloquial opener, active voice, everyday vocabulary.
3Identify the register error: "The government has conducted extensive research into the matter. It's pretty clear the policy isn't working."
Never mix formal and informal in the same paragraph in academic or report writing.
4Convert to formal (nominalise + passive): "The team achieved the targets quickly."
Passive: targets become subject. Nominalise: "achieved" → "achievement". "Quickly" → "rapidly" (more formal adverb).
5Which is more appropriate for a formal complaint letter: "I'm writing about the terrible service I got" or "I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the service I received"?
"Terrible" and "got" are informal. "Dissatisfaction" and "received" are formal equivalents.
6Add hedging to make this claim more academic: "Automation will cause mass unemployment."
Replace certainty ("will cause") with hedged language ("may lead to", "could result in").