AVCE Unit 1 - Presenting Information
This information is from the specification. It tells you what you need to learn. The topics are:
Styles of Writing and Use of Language
You know what you want to communicate. How will you express it? There are two important things to remember when preparing information:
your reader and the purpose of your document.You will need to be aware of your reader by using the right kind of language. Unusual words might impress the reader of a job application, but they might annoy someone reading directions to your house. You must also consider the purpose of your document by thinking about the style of language to use. Formal purposes demand a formal style. Sometimes a communication is designed to collect information from people. Examples are invoices, time sheets, questionnaires and forms such as those used to apply for a driving licence or passport. Forms of this kind need to use simple but clear language. You must learn to use appropriate language and presentation layout to create forms that are easy to understand and easy to complete correctly.
You will use different writing styles to meet different needs. You must learn how the following needs and document structures affect writing style:
There are tools to help with style. Some assess the reading age that a passage requires. If the reading level seems too high, you can try shorter sentences and simpler words. With some tools you can choose a writing style such as business letter, memo, advertising or report. The advice you get matches the style you chose. Other tools, such as a
thesaurus, help you to replace particular words with more appropriate ones. You must learn to judge the strengths and weaknesses of these tools. This will help you to improve the readability of your presentations.Thinking about the writing style of some of the following examples may help:
- a form for an opinion poll