Which variety of English would be appropriate for writing a letter to the Minister of Education raising your concerns about the quality of...

When asking about "which variety of English would be appropriate," you are asking about which linguistic "register" would be appropriate to use in a given situation among given participants. To write to the Minister of Education about the quality of education in the country, the appropriate variety (register) would be a formal variety, indicating respect for the high position of the Minister and versed in the appropriate vernacular of discussion in the field of education.

"Variety" when used to mean register specifies syntax, tone, vocabulary that is uniform with or similar to all other communication at a similar level on a similar subject or discipline. The formal variety in a letter to a Minister acknowledges respect for the other participant's position (e.g. the high position and authority of the Minister of Education), makes use of flawless Standard English syntax and grammar, employs an informative tone that is objective and impersonal, uses a vocabulary that reflects knowledge of the discipline of education (if a non-professional is writing formally about a professional discipline, their knowledge of the vernacular of the discipline will be limited but can reflect a serious, well considered, well reasoned discussion within their scope of knowledge).

The basic division of varieties (or registers) is formal, neutral and informal. Linguists may use various divisions and different labels for varieties but each descriptive set of divisions has at its conceptual core the three simplified divisions of formal, neutral and informal. A neutral variety would be inappropriate for a letter to a Minister as it may be subjective, expressive of unsubstantiated opinion, and inexpertly composed. An informal variety would be inappropriate as it would contain culturally limited idioms, slang and perhaps vulgarities and would present opinion and information in an inarticulate, therefore inaccessible, composition.

Some other discussions of varieties, or registers, describe the divisions as follows:

• very formal, formal, neutral, informal, very informal


• casual, consultative, formal, frozen


• static, formal, consultative, casual, intimate

Each of these divisions of varieties, or registers, accords with the accepted linguistic definition of registers (or varieties) as being:

A set of specialized vocabulary and preferred (or dispreferred) syntactic and rhetorical devices/structures, used by specific socio-professional groups for special purposes. A register is a property or characteristic of a language, and not of an individual or a class of speakers. ("Linguistic Register," Harold Schiffer, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania)

a variety of language defined according to its use in social situations, e.g. a register of scientific, religious, formal English [dialect is defined as "according to user"]. (Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics)

As a note on the use of the technical linguistic term "variety," you can see from the uses of "variety" and "register" that linguistic terms may have overlapping meanings and uses. As Zwicky and Zwicky write: "[D]ifferent linguists have used an array of technical terms in varying and overlapping ways." (Zwicky and Zwicky, "Register as a Dimension of Linguistic Variation"). As a case in point, "variety" may also refer to national English varieties that have developed distinctive characteristics in vocabulary, syntax and phonetics that distinguish them from Standard British English. An example is the variety of Indian English, another is the variety of American English. In the same way that "variety" may mean "register," "variety" may also mean variety of national English.