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Chapter 3
Building Goodwill
Goodwill
You-Attitude
Positive Emphasis
Tone, Power, & Politeness
Reducing Bias Language
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Goodwill
 Build goodwill
through
 You-attitude
 Positive emphasis
 Bias-free language
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You-Attitude
 Looks at things from audience’s
viewpoint
 Emphasizes what audience wants to
know
 Respects audience’s intelligence
 Protects audience’s ego
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Five Ways to Create You-Attitude
1.
2.
3.
4.
Talk about audience, not yourself.
Refer to reader’s request or order.
Don’t talk about feelings.
In positive situations, use you more
often than I. Use we when it includes
the audience.
5. In negative situations, avoid you.
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Talk About Audience, Not Yourself
 Tell how message affects the audience
 Don’t mention communicator’s work or
generosity
 Stress what audience wants to know
Yourself
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Talk About Audience: Examples
 Lacks you-attitude
 I negotiated an agreement with Apex
Rent-a-Car that gives you a discount.
 We shipped your May 21 order today.
 Contains you-attitude
 You now get a 20% discount when you
rent a car from Apex.
 The three Birth Year coin sets you ordered
will ship today and should reach you by
June 6.
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Refer to Reader’s Request or Order
 Make specific
references, not
generic
 Name content of order
for person or small
business
 Cite purchase order
numbers for customers
that order often
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Refer to Audience’s Request or
Order: Examples
 Lacks you-attitude
 We shipped your order today.
 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
 Express your feelings to
 Offer sympathy to audience
 Congratulate audience
 Don’t talk about audience’s
feelings
 Don’t predict audience’s
response
 Give audience good news
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Don’t Talk About Feelings: Examples
 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.
 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
 Use you in positive situations
 Avoid I in printed text
 Avoid we if it excludes the audience
YOU
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In Positive Situations, Use You More
Often Than I. Use We If It Includes
the Audience: Example
 Lacks you-attitude
 We provide exercise equipment to all
employees.
 I will schedule a due date that works best for my
schedule.
 Contains you-attitude
 You have access to the latest exercise
equipment as a full-time employee of RAC Inc.
 We will schedule the due date after we meet.
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Avoid You in Negative Situations
 Protect audience’s ego
 Avoid assigning blame
 Use passive verbs
 Use impersonal style
 Talk about things, not people
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Avoid You in Negative Situations:
Examples
 Lacks you-attitude
 You failed to sign your flexible spending
account form.
 You made no allowance for inflation in
your estimate.
 Contains you-attitude
 Your flexible spending account form was
not signed.
 The estimate makes no allowance for
inflation.
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Positive Emphasis
 Way of looking at situations
 Communication focuses on the positive
 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. Focus on what audience can do, not
limitations
3. Justify negative information by giving
reason or linking to audience benefit
4. Omit unimportant negatives
5. Put negative information in the middle
and present it compactly
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Avoid Negative Words: Examples
 Contains Negatives
 Never fail to return library books on time.
 Because you failed to pay your bill, your
account is delinquent.
 Omits Negatives (Better)
 Always return library books on time.
 Your account is past due.
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Focus on What the Audience Can Do:
Example
 Negative
 You will not get your refund check until
you submit your official grade report at the
end of the semester.
 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
 Negative
 You cannot take vacation days without
prior approval from your supervisor.
 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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Omit Unimportant Negatives
 When audience does not need the
information to act
 When audience has the information in
your previous message
 When information is trivial
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Put the Negative in the Middle and
Present it Compactly
 Put in middle of message
and paragraph
 Don’t put at bottom of page 1
 Don’t list vertically
 Make it short as you can
 Give it only once
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Tone, Power, & Politeness
 Tone – implied attitude of the
communicator toward the audience
 Good tone




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Businesslike, not stiff
Friendly, not phony
Confident, not arrogant
Polite, not groveling
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Levels of Politeness: Examples
 Highest: Would you be able to
complete your report by Friday?
 High: Progress reports should be
turned in by Friday.
 Mid: Please turn in your progress
report by Friday.
 Low: Turn in your progress report by
Friday.
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Reducing Bias
 Bias-free language – words that do
not discriminate on basis of




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Sex
Age
Race
Physical condition
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Making Language Nonsexist
 Treat both sexes neutrally
 Businessman = Business
person
 Woman doctor = Doctor
 Manning = Staffing
 Don’t assume everyone is
heterosexual or married
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Making Language Nonsexist,
continued…
 Avoid sexist job
titles






McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Actress
Repairman
Chairman
Salesman
Foreman
Waitress
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Making Language Nonsexist,
continued…
 Use Ms. as courtesy title for
women
 Use professional title instead (if
any)
 Use Miss or Mrs. if audience
prefers it
 Determine proper courtesy
title for letter address and
salutation
 Omit sexist generic pronouns
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Making Language Nonracist &
Nonagist
 Give age or race only if relevant
 Refer to a group by term it prefers
 Don’t suggest competence is rare:
 She is an asset to her race.
 He is an active 83-year-old.
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Talking about People with Disabilities &
Diseases
 People-first language —
Name person first; add
disability or disease if relevant
 Don’t imply that disability or
disease defines person
 Don’t use negative terms,
unless audience prefers them
(deaf vs. hard of hearing)
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