Your own wording
Read what you found from your homework. Was the title correct?
Four bios, one designer
The same facts, four registers.
1 · Formal proposal document
[Name], principal of [Practice Name] LLC, is a landscape designer licensed in California (B-C27) with a practice based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained in landscape design in Brazil, she has completed permitted residential projects across San Mateo, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties, including a full impervious-surface reduction in Lafayette and a stair, deck and retaining-wall project in San Jose. Her scope of services covers design development, permit drawing sets, and construction-phase coordination with the client’s contractor.
2 · Website / self-written
I’m a landscape designer based in the Bay Area, trained in Brazil and licensed here under B-C27. I design residential outdoor spaces — patios, retaining walls, planting, drainage — and I see every project through from the first sketch to the final inspection. Most of my clients come from referrals, which tells you something about how I like to work: closely, and for the long term.
3 · Email introduction
Quick introduction — I’m [Name], a licensed landscape designer (B-C27) working in the Bay Area. I saw your note about the backyard project and wanted to reach out directly, since I’ve done a few jobs with a similar scope nearby, including a full permit set in Lafayette last year.
4 · Spoken, at an event
Prospect: "So, tell me a bit about yourself — what do you do?"
Designer: "Sure — so I’m a landscape designer, I trained in Brazil originally and I’ve been practicing here in the Bay Area for a few years now. I do mostly residential work — patios, walls, planting, that kind of thing. I just finished a project in Lafayette, actually, pretty similar to what you’re describing."
Same person, same licence, same four projects behind all of them. What changes is not the truth — it is pronoun, sentence length, and how much is stated versus implied.
- Which one uses third person? Which uses first?
- Which one is a single sentence with no full stop until the end?
- Which one has false starts and self-corrections — and why is that correct for that genre rather than a mistake?
What each register signals
Four genres, four defaults
| Genre | Person | Typical move |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal document | Third person ("[Name] is…") | States credentials plainly, up front |
| Website / self-written | First person | Warmer, still professional, invites trust |
| Email introduction | First person, brief | Gets to the reason for writing fast |
| Spoken, live | First person, informal markers | Self-corrects, restarts — normal, not sloppy |
The spoken version is not a worse version of the written one. "So I’m a landscape designer, I trained in Brazil originally" has a restart and a filler that would be cut from a proposal document — and cutting them from speech, in an effort to "speak properly," is what makes rehearsed spoken English sound rehearsed. Fluent spoken register has its own rules, and disfluency inside them is not a flaw.
Identify the register
All the evidence is in the four bios in Phase 02.
1. Which bio uses third person throughout?
2. Why does the email bio mention the Lafayette project specifically, rather than a general list?
3. What is the spoken bio’s restart ("so I’m a landscape designer, I trained…") evidence of?
4. What stays identical across all four bios?
Match each opening line to the register it belongs to. Click the line, then the register.
Your own bio, four ways
Task card
Your real practice, your real facts
Give a one-sentence bio in each of the four registers, out loud, back to back.
- Same underlying facts each time — licence, training, one project.
- Change person and formality, not the facts.
- The spoken one does not need to be polished. A restart is fine.
Which register was hardest?
Which of the four felt least natural? That is the one to rehearse most before Lesson 8.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Read the proposal-document bio (Phase 02) again and count how many sentences it takes to get from "who you are" to "why you". Bring the number.