Your fact
State your homework fact once, plainly, with no register in mind yet.
The 59% reduction, four ways
One fact, four genres
| Genre | Version |
|---|---|
| Spec / drawing note | "Impervious surface: 2,963 SF existing, 1,209 SF proposed." |
| Email to a prospect | "On a recent Lafayette project I reduced impervious surface by almost 60%, which is the kind of result I’d aim for here too." |
| Proposal document | "[Name]’s recent work includes a 59% reduction in impervious surface on a Contra Costa County residence, achieved without reducing usable hardscape area." |
| Spoken, in conversation | "Yeah, so on one project we actually got it down by almost sixty percent — pretty happy with that one." |
Same number, four different jobs. The spec register states without persuading. The email leads with relevance to this reader. The proposal adds a qualifier ("without reducing usable hardscape area") that pre-empts an objection before it is raised. The spoken version drops the precision entirely — "almost sixty percent," not 59% — because exactness in speech can sound rehearsed rather than confident.
What each genre adds or drops
Precision, persuasion, warmth
| Genre | Precision | Persuasion | Warmth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spec | Exact figure | None | None |
| Rounded | Framed for this reader | Some | |
| Proposal | Exact figure | Pre-empts an objection | Low, but not cold |
| Spoken | Rounded, sometimes vaguer | Understated ("pretty happy") | High |
The failure mode this unit is named for is dragging spec-register precision into a genre that does not want it. "We achieved a 59.0% reduction in impervious surface" said out loud at a dinner party is not more accurate than "almost sixty percent" — it is a category error, the professional register leaking into a genre built for something else.
Match the genre
Match each version to its genre. Click the version, then the genre.
Complete each sentence with the correct form of the word in brackets.
- Her recent work includes a significant in impervious surface. REDUCE
- The proposal is written to sound without overstating the result. PERSUADE
- Her scope of services includes construction-phase with the contractor. COORDINATE
- The spoken version deliberately sacrifices some for warmth. PRECISE
- Her practice has built a strong in the Bay Area. REPUTE
Your own fact, four genres
Task card
The fact you brought from homework
State it as a spec note, an email line, a proposal sentence, and a spoken remark, back to back.
- Keep the underlying number identical across all four.
- Only the proposal version should pre-empt an objection.
- The spoken version should sound like something you would actually say, not a script.
Which genre leaked into another?
Did the exact figure sneak into your spoken version, or did the spec version pick up unnecessary warmth? Naming the leak is the whole point of the exercise.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Write one sentence explaining, to someone who has never heard of paisagismo, what your Brazilian training actually covered.