Choosing Register in a Formal Exchange
A student is preparing a spoken exchange for assessment. The scenario: she has been invited to a 座谈会 (symposium) at a partner school in Nanjing and must (a) thank the host, (b) explain that her group's research on urban recycling is still incomplete, and (c) ask whether they can present preliminary findings instead of a final report. She has drafted three sentences in class and shows them to you. Draft 1: 谢谢你们请我们，我们的研究还没做完，能不能先讲一下初步的结果？ Draft 2: 非常感谢贵校的邀请。我们的研究尚未完成，不知能否先汇报初步成果？ Draft 3 mixes both: 非常感谢贵校的邀请，我们的研究还没做完，能不能先讲一下初步的结果？ She has 3 minutes to speak and wants to sound 'friendly but respectful'.
1. Evaluate the three drafts against the requirements of the scenario and recommend a course of action.
Read the worked answer
Draft 1 is appropriate for a peer or informal setting but too casual for a formal 座谈会 with a host institution: 谢谢你们请我们 is warm but lacks the deference of 贵校, and 还没做完 / 能不能先讲一下 is conversational.
Draft 2 is well calibrated for the formal setting: 贵校 marks institutional respect, 尚未完成 is a formal written/spoken register, and 不知能否先汇报初步成果 hedges the request politely while using 汇报 (report to a superior audience), which positions the speaker appropriately.
Draft 3 is the riskiest: it opens with high formality (贵校的邀请) then drops into casual register (还没做完, 能不能先讲一下). The mismatch reads as inconsistent rather than 'friendly' - the listener may perceive either the formal opening as hollow or the casual request as careless.
Recommendation: build the whole speech in Draft 2's register, then add warmth through content rather than by lowering register - for example a brief expression of appreciation for the host's hospitality, and a clear statement of what the group can offer. 'Friendly but respectful' in a formal Chinese academic setting is achieved through sincere content and appropriate humility markers, not by mixing registers.
2. The student also wants to soften the news that the research is incomplete. Suggest two strategies in Chinese and explain the risk of each.
Read the worked answer
Strategy 1 - framing incompleteness as ongoing progress: 目前研究仍在进行中，部分数据还在整理 ('the research is still underway; some data are still being organised'). This reframes 'not finished' as 'in progress', which is face-protecting for the group. Risk: if overused it can sound evasive, and the host may not realise how preliminary the findings are, creating a mismatch of expectations later.
Strategy 2 - taking responsibility explicitly before the request: 由于我们前期调研时间有限，成果还不成熟，恳请各位老师指正 ('because our earlier fieldwork time was limited, the results are not yet mature; we respectfully ask teachers for guidance'). This uses 由于 plus a stated cause and 恳请 to show humility. Risk: over-apologising can undermine the group's credibility and may read as excessive self-deprecation (过分谦虚) to a Chinese academic audience, who may value confident but modest presentation.
Both strategies work best combined with a concrete offer (what they can present, how long, what feedback they want), so the softening does not obscure the practical request.