ƒ You-Attitude
ƒ Positive Emphasis
ƒ Tone, Power, and Politeness
ƒ Bias-Free Language
Goodwill
ƒ Build goodwill through
• You-attitude
• Positive emphasis
• Bias-free language
You-Attitude
ƒ Looks at things from audience’s viewpoint
ƒ Emphasizes what audience wants to know
ƒ Respects audience’s intelligence
ƒ Protects audience’s ego
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Five Ways to Create You-Attitude
1. Talk about audience, not yourself.
2. Refer to audience’s request or order.
3. Don’t talk about feelings.
4. In positive situations, use you more often than I. Use we when it includes the audience.
5. In negative situations, avoid you .
ƒ Don’t overuse “You”: It is not just the pronoun.
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Talk About Audience, Not Yourself
ƒ Tell how message affects the audience
ƒ Don’t mention communicator’s work or generosity
ƒ Stress what audience wants to know
Yourself
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Talk About Audience: Examples
ƒ Lacks you-attitude
• I negotiated an agreement with Apex Renta-Car that gives you a discount.
• We shipped your May 21 order today.
ƒ Contains you-attitude
• You now get a 20% discount when you rent a car from Apex.
• The three coin sets you ordered will ship today and should reach you by June 6.
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Refer to Audience’s Request or Order
Specifically
ƒ Make specific references, not generic
ƒ Name content of order for person or small business
ƒ Cite purchase order numbers for customers that order often
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Refer to Audience’s Request or Order
Specifically: Examples
ƒ Lacks you-attitude
• We shipped your order today.
ƒ Contains you-attitude
• The 500 red and gray sweatshirts you ordered were shipped today and will reach you early next week.
• Your P.O. 7823-N shipped on 11/04 and will arrive within five business days.
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Don’t Talk About Feelings
ƒ Don’t talk about audience’s feelings
ƒ Don’t predict audience’s response
ƒ Only express feelings to
• Offer sympathy
• Congratulate
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Don’t Talk About Feelings: Examples
ƒ Lacks you-attitude
• We are happy to give you a credit line of
$2,000.
• You will be happy to learn that your reimbursement request has been approved.
ƒ Contains you-attitude
• You now have a $2,000 credit line with VISA.
• Your reimbursement request has been approved.
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In Positive Situations, Use You More
Often Than I. Use We If It Includes the
Audience
ƒ Use you in positive situations
ƒ Rarely use I in messages
ƒ Avoid we if it excludes the audience
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In Positive Situations, Use You More
Often Than I . Use We If It Includes the
Audience: Examples
ƒ Lacks you-attitude
• We provide exercise equipment to all employees.
• I will schedule a due date that works best for my schedule.
ƒ Contains you-attitude
• You have access to the latest exercise equipment as a full-time employee of BNF.
• We will schedule the due date after we meet.
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Avoid You in Negative Situations
ƒ Protect audience’s ego
ƒ Avoid assigning blame
• Use passive verbs
• Use impersonal style
ƒ Talk about things, not people
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Avoid You in Negative Situations:
Examples
ƒ Lacks you-attitude
• You failed to sign your flexible spending account form.
• You made no allowance for inflation in your estimate.
ƒ Contains you-attitude
• The flexible spending account form was not signed.
• The estimate makes no allowance for inflation.
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You-Attitude Beyond Sentence Level
ƒ Be complete
ƒ Anticipate and answer questions
ƒ Show why info is important
ƒ Show how the subject affects audience
ƒ Put most important info first
ƒ Arrange info to meet audience’s needs
ƒ Use headings and lists
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Positive Emphasis
ƒ Way of looking at situations
ƒ Focus on the positive
ƒ Create positive emphasis through
• Words
• Information
• Organization
• Layout
Half full or half empty?
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Five Ways to Create Positive Emphasis
1. Avoid negative words
2. Beware of hidden negatives
3. Focus on what audience can do, not limitations
4. Justify negative information by giving reason or linking to audience benefit
5. Put negative information in the middle and present it compactly
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Avoid Negative Words: Examples
ƒ Contains Negatives
• Never fail to return library books on time.
• Because you failed to pay your bill, your account is delinquent.
ƒ Omits Negatives (Better)
• Always return library books on time.
• The account is past due.
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Beware of Hidden Negatives:
Examples
ƒ Contains Negatives
• I hope this is the information you wanted.
• Please be patient as we switch to the automated system.
ƒ Omits Negatives (Better)
• Enclosed is a brochure about joining the MI
Retiree Association.
• You’ll be able to get information instantly about any house on the market once the automated system is in place. If you have questions during the transition, please call Sheryl Brown.
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Focus on What the Audience Can Do:
Example
ƒ Negative
• You will not get your refund check until you submit your official grade report at the end of the semester.
ƒ Better
• To receive your refund check, submit your official grade report at the end of the semester.
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Justify Negative Information by Giving
Reason or Linking to Audience Benefit:
Example
ƒ Negative
• You cannot take vacation days without prior approval from your supervisor.
ƒ Better
• To ensure that everyone’s duties will be covered, submit your first and second choices of vacation time to your supervisor by May 30.
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Put the Negative in the Middle and
Present it Compactly
N eg at iv e
ƒ Put in middle of message and paragraph
ƒ Don’t end with negative
ƒ Don’t present with bulleted or numbered lists
ƒ Make it short as you can
ƒ Give it only once
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Tone, Power, and Politeness
ƒ Tone – implied attitude of the communicator toward the audience
ƒ Word choice, audience, and relationship
ƒ Good tone
• Businesslike, not stiff
• Friendly, not phony
• Confident, not arrogant
• Polite, not groveling
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Use Nondiscriminatory language
Not: When making the table arrangements for the president’s luncheon, be sure to seat Arlene Kelly next to Mr. Jameson, our new African-American salesman from Philadelphia. Also, remember that
Mr. Little is confined to a wheelchair and should be seated on the main level. The other executives and their wives may be seated in any order.
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Bias-Free Language
ƒ Use neutral job titles.
ƒ Avoid language that implies gender.
ƒ Avoid demeaning or stereotypical terms.
ƒ Use parallel language.
ƒ Use appropriate personal titles and salutations.
ƒ Avoid using he as a generic pronoun.
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Bias-Free Language continued
ƒ Race
ƒ Ethnicity
ƒ Religion
ƒ Age
ƒ Sexual Orientation
ƒ Disabilities
• Separate the impairment from the person
• Mary, who has epilepsy, NOT: Mary, an epileptic.
ƒ Competent communicators want readers to focus on what is written, not how it is written.
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