Register? huhh?!!

Register? huh???!  vs. Excuse me, would you mind telling me what "register" is about?

I bet you have sooner or later in your school career heard something about  "Register". Well, what is register about? In English, as in other languages you use different styles of writing to address different groups of people. There is the formal register, which is reserved for people you want to be very polite to, like your boss or a business partner. The informal register is more conversational, you use it while talking to friends, writing e-mails to relatives etc. There is also a register that is whether to formal, nor to informal, it fits somewhere inbetween and is called the neutral register.
It is important to use the wright register in the right situation. Or wouldn´t it be kind of strange to end a letter to your best friend with the word "Sincerely" and an e-mail to your financial advisor with "Lots of Love" ? This might give the addressee a wrong impression. (Unless you  have a romantic relationship with your financial advisor)
At school we learned a lot of set phrases fitting in the right register, we learned how to write an informal letter, a letter of complaint, an application and so on..

While searching for some background information about this topic on the web I came across an article that is concerned with the problems of many English speaking students when it comes to register. Many don´t understand the usage, since they would rather talk to everyone in the same way. Maybe this is due to the fact, that in English, other than in other languages like German, Spanish or Italian they dont have a polite form to address someone directly. For us German speakers it is only natural to address people you don´t know that well with "Sie" rather than "You".  Nevertheless the concept of register is not that hard to understand, even for English speaking students. And what's more is, that it is really important and only logical that you talk to your friends in a more conversational way than to strangers.

A world without register - a better place? 

But lets do the experiment and just think about it: what if there were no registers ? Would our society be seen as more equal since there wouldn´t be differences in the way we address people? We would talk to a homeless immigrant the same way we would talk to the Queen. Wouldn´t it be a better world? I guess not.
I think equality is rather a matter of respect than of the right register. You should talk to the homeless in the same  respectful way, you would use while talking to the Queen. But I bet many people wouldn´t and I think there is the problem. Don´t just blame it on the register.

Alright, so here are the hard facts summed up:

Formal register

- complex, more likely to use words with Latin roots

- longer sentences, no contractions or abbreviations

- objective 

- used for rather serious topics

- includes:  Business letters, Letters of complaint, some essays,  official speeches, professional e-mails

Informal register

- simple and conversational 

- might use slang

- short or even incomplete sentences

- contractions and abbreviations

- includes: personal e-mails, letters to friends, most blogs (such as mine for example), diaries and journals

Neutral register

- non emotional

- sticks to facts

- includes: technical writing, reviews, articles, some essays