Register and Tone for Audience and Purpose: Question 10
Syllabus W3, W4
A student wants to rewrite the following informal message in a formal register, ready to send to their sports coach:
"We can't come to the meeting tomorrow 'cause our bus got cancelled, sorry!"
Which option rewrites this sentence in a formal register while keeping exactly the same meaning as the original? [1]
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Worked solution
Assessment focus
This question tests whether a candidate can judge a register transformation on TWO criteria at once (is the language actually formal, and does it preserve the original meaning exactly) rather than accepting any formal-sounding rewrite regardless of accuracy.
Why B is correct
Option B (“Unfortunately, we will be unable to attend tomorrow’s meeting as our bus service has been cancelled; we apologise for the inconvenience.”) uses no contractions, complete formal sentence structures, and a polite, professional apology. Crucially, it preserves the original meaning exactly: the group cannot attend because their bus was cancelled, and they are apologising for this.
Why the distractors are wrong
- A keeps the contraction “can’t” and the casual closer “so sorry about that”, so the register has not fully shifted to formal despite some improvement.
- C is fully formal in language but changes the meaning: it states that the meeting has been cancelled, when in fact the meeting is still happening and it is the group’s bus (and therefore their attendance) that has been cancelled. A formal register does not excuse an inaccurate rewrite.
- D keeps the contraction “won’t” and adds a judgemental opinion not present in the original (“the buses are rubbish”), which is both informal in register and inappropriate content for a message to a coach.
Mark scheme
- 1 mark for selecting B.
- 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.