Feedback on Warm-Up 3

I think I've marked all the Warm-Up 3s - if you've sent one in, but not received any feedback, please get in touch and I'll see what's happened. If you've not sent one in yet, there's still time - just enter it on the blog when you're ready.

So here's my feedback …

You all did well on this task! Nearly everyone worked out that a formal report will tend to concentrate on facts and situations, whilst an informal one will often focus on people and actions. You have to use a different type of language too: informal language tends to be less precise and more vague, whilst formal language needs to be as precise as you can make it. That's why words like 'get' aren't often found in formal writing: there are over 50 different meanings of the word in the main Oxford English Dictionary … and the reader of a report needs to know precisely which one you're intending them to understand.

You generally did a good job of finding the colloquialisms in what the inspector said. Words like 'hardhat' and 'digger' are colloquial, whereas, strangely enough, 'dumper truck' isn't.

This is what a dumper truck looks like, by the way:

There were some fairly specific points about language that I want to take up with everyone:

1. Rules and regulations

Clubs, associations and organisations have rules. If you break them, you don't get fined or sent to jail, but you might find that you aren't welcome as a member of that organisation any more.

Regulations are connected with laws. There'll be a law, for example, about safety at work, but the law will need to be backed up with detailed regulations about what you need to do or not do in order to obey the law. Thus the law might specify that safety barriers have to exist, but a regulation will state how high they have to be.

2. Obligatory/compulsory

… which are connected with rules and regulations again! Strictly speaking, an obligation is something that results from you being subject to rules, whilst compulsory is connected with the idea that you can't avoid doing something, even if you wanted to. Thus it's obligatory to obey rules (if you want to stay in the club), but compulsory to obey regulations (if you want to avoid prosecution).

3. Request and require

If you request something, you're asking; if you require something, you're telling! People enforcing laws and regulations tend to require, rather than request.

4. Safety and security

In English safety tends to involve physical safety, whilst security tends to involve psychological feelings of not being in danger. So a Safety Officer will advise workers about how to avoid being hurt, whilst a Security Officer patrols the site at night to make sure that no-one enters it and starts messing about with things or stealing them.

5. Injury, damage and damages

These three words are tricky!

Animate objects, like people and animals, can sustain injuries; inanimate objects, like machines or buildings, can sustain damage; damages, on the other hand, is the money you have to pay out if you've been sued and found liable (skadestånd in Swedish).

6. The company is … or the company are …?

You can see a company in two different ways: as a legal entity or as a collection of individuals who happen to work there. So when you're talking about things the company does as a legal entity, it's going to be singular (is). When the company is acting as a group of individuals, it's plural (are):

The company is introducing a revolutionary new product!

The company are all away on a team-building exercise today.