Helpful Hint
AUDIENCE AND TENOR
It is normal to vary our expression according to our audience and the context, the occasion. The more formal the context, the more desirable is precise expression. In some contexts, precise expression adds authority to a text.
However, in everyday speech, precise language (for example, the use of whom) may make some people feel uncomfortable as it may sound impersonal, as if one is putting distance between oneself and one's audience - or even as if one is putting on airs.
The tenor of a text is the social distance established between author and audience, the level of familiarity or otherwise, the stance and level of authority taken by the author and so on. To show how small changes to a text can subtly change its tenor, let us rewrite a section of the above paragraph: ...it may sound impersonal, as if you are putting distance between yourself and your audience. Is that a more sociable style than the original? The only difference is that the everyday 'you' has been used instead of 'one'. The use of 'one' is technically correct, but the use of 'you' (which is an everyday use rather than a precise one) reduces the distance between author and audience.