Tone

Bureaucratic style often displays an overly formal tone, sometimes called frozen, because it is characterized partly by clichés and stock phrases. While formality is sometimes appropriate, a frozen tone rarely serves the writer’s purpose, and it causes the reader’s attention to drift.

While no single tone is appropriate for every document, the writer must be aware of the possibilities and decide what is appropriate. For example, if you are representing your office in a letter to the ministry, you want to reflect a formal tone. However, if you are writing to a colleague with whom you will correspond often, you probably want to use a more informal tone.