BASES

OCCASION

RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THE
SPEAKER AND
THE AUDIENCE

SUBJECT

CHARACTERISTI
C OF THE
LANGUAGE

FORMAL ENGLISH
Serious and official
Business meetings
Job interviews
Research
Reports
Conventions
Other professional activities
Professional
Superior and subordinate
Employer and employee
Business associates
Colleagues in the academe
Spatial and distance
Dear Dr. Dacanay:
Serious topics
Academic and Technical Writing:
Science-oriented and Engineering
Business Writing: Commerce and
Accountancy
Creative Writing: Arts and Letters (Prose
and Poetry)
Expository Writing: Education and
Philosophy
Legal Writing: Lawyers
OBJECTIVE
IMPERSONAL TONE
AVOID BEING EMOTIONAL
Vocabulary
Grammar
Formal Language
With conventions and
Mechanics
Deep Lexicon
Use of
Transitional
Devices
(Cohesiveness)
Complex and
Complete

INFORMAL ENGLISH
Casual and friendly
Conversation with family
members and friends
Daily routines
Parties

Familial and friendship encounters

There is intimacy
Dear Sarah,
Loving yours,

Daily

topics
Love
Hatred
Friendship

SUBJECTIVE
EMOTIONAL
Vocabulary
Use of slang and
colloquial words (e.g.
gonna, wanna, kinda,
gig)

Grammar
Less conventions/
No conventions

EXAMPLES OF
TEXT

Sentence
Structures
Job application letters
Research Reports
Lectures

Diaries
Journals
Blogs/Narrative Texts