Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
30 · Phrasal verbs in writing
Email, chat, and documentation: where they work, and where to switch.
ACCESS
Writing is not one register; it's a ladder. A phrasal verb that's perfect in a chat can be too loose in a contract, and the belief that formal writing bans phrasal verbs is a myth. Watch where each choice lands.
Two colleagues turning one set of notes into a chat message, a client email, and a formal statement of work.
Amir The chat version's easy: “we'll kick off Monday and roll it out in phases.”
Nadia In the client email, keep roll out, and kick off is fine too. It's warm, not sloppy.
Amir And the statement of work?
Nadia There, kick off becomes commence. But carry out the audit stays. Good writing doesn't ban phrasal verbs, it places them.
Amir So it's not phrasal-or-not. It's which register the document sits in.
Nadia Exactly. Follow up works everywhere. Sort out I'd write as resolve in the contract, and leave as is in the email.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
Which rung of the ladder is this?
Speech had one rule: default to the phrasal verb. Writing has three rungs, chat, email, formal document, and the choice depends on which one you are standing on. The myth that formal writing bans phrasal verbs is false; it bans the wrong ones in the wrong place.
The structure
Speech had one rule: default to the phrasal verb. Writing is a ladder with three rungs, chat, email, and formal document, and the right choice depends on the rung. The myth is that formal writing bans phrasal verbs. It does not. It bans the wrong ones in the wrong place.
Chat and instant message are almost speech. Email is the wide middle, warm and professional. Formal documents are where some phrasal verbs give way to their Latinate twins for precision, while others, carry out, set out, roll out, follow up, are so standard that they stay.
The bottom rung
- Form
- chat and instant message
- Meaning
- the reader answers within minutes and reads it as speech
- Use it to
- write the way you would say it
The middle rung
- Form
- email, the wide middle
- Meaning
- warm and professional at the same time; both twins are available
- Use it to
- sound human without sounding careless
The top rung
- Form
- formal documents and contracts
- Meaning
- some phrasal verbs give way to Latinate twins for precision
- Use it to
- keep the standard ones and replace the loose ones
The same meaning climbs the ladder. The bottom rows barely change; some phrasal verbs are at home even in a contract.
The ones that stay all the way up
The useful fact in this unit is that the top rung does not clear the phrasal verbs out. It keeps a specific set of them.
Carry out, set out, roll out and follow up appear in contracts, regulations and audit reports without anybody flinching, because they have become the standard terms for those acts. No Latinate twin has displaced them.
What the top rung does remove is the loose, conversational ones. Sort out the dispute gives way to resolve the dispute; put off the deadline gives way to postpone. The test is not formality in general but whether the phrase is the established term.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: how long until somebody reads this, and do they know you?
Minutes, and they know you: chat, and the phrasal verb is right. Hours or days, and they know you professionally: email, where both twins work. Months or years, and they have never met you: a document, where you check each phrase individually.
On the top rung the question narrows to one thing: is this the standard term for the act? If the phrase appears in other documents of the same kind, keep it. If it only appears in conversation, replace it.
The mechanical half: if you can point to the phrase in a published contract or regulation, it belongs on the top rung. Carry out passes that check. Sort out does not.
Writing judges register by document, not by sentence. The same verb that's perfect in a chat can be too casual in a signed contract, and the reader feels the mismatch instantly. This is why the myth is worth killing outright: the goal was never to avoid phrasal verbs, it was to place the right one on the right rung.
ACTIVATION
Practice placing verbs on the ladder: formalize, spot mismatches, rewrite for a rung, then choose by document.
Move it up to a formal document
Give the formal-document version. If the phrasal verb already belongs in a formal document, write keeps.
Spot the register mismatch
Each line is on the wrong rung for the document in brackets. Rewrite it to fit.
1. (Slack) I'll kick off the deploy now.
2. (Contract) The vendor will resolve any defects within 30 days.
3. (Chat) Can you send the file over?
4. (Policy) Staff must complete the checklist before each shift.
5. (Peer email) Can you dig into the root cause?
Rewrite for the rung
Rewrite each sentence for the register in brackets.
1. The project will commence in June and roll out by Q4.
2. Can we put off the review and give the team a heads-up?
3. The team will resolve any issues.
4. I'll look into it and get back to you.
5. We carry out testing and follow up on defects.
Match the halves
Join each phrasal verb to its formal-document twin, or the note that it needs none.
Meet a Stranger
These three live in the most formal writing there is. If you don't know them, reason from the particle, then reveal the key.
1. “The report sets out three recommendations.”
2. “Legal will draw up the contract.”
3. “The parties enter into this agreement freely.”
set out: to state or present something formally. Out: laid out in the open.
draw up: to prepare a formal document. Up: drawn up into finished form.
enter into: to formally begin an agreement. Into: crossing into a binding commitment.
Fit the document
Choose the verb that fits the document in brackets. The others are correct, but on the wrong rung.
Vocabulary: document nouns
These are phrasal verbs frozen into the names of written things. Match each to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with a noun from G.