Archive for the ‘Email’ Category

Question: I’ve had a few staff attend your business writing course recently and am wondering if you have a ’shopping list’ of positive phrases. As their manager, I’m having difficulty in having staff recognizing the sharpness in their writing. For example, instead of using ‘you must comply’…try ‘you need to  consider’…would you have a resource that you could share so that I can mentor them further?  A Manager, York Region

Answer: I can definitely give you pointers to share with your team. And you’ve even inspired me to create a new quiz and a writing contest.

Being positive is always better—it’s easier to understand, easier to remember and helps build better relationships.

Yes, there’s a time to be negative. For example, when you give bad news, come right out and say it: “You aren’t getting the job” or “We can’t give you a refund,” or “We can’t provide you with life insurance.” But that doesn’t mean you have to load up your document with all kinds of regret.

Also, sometimes people don’t comply with reasonable requests, they persistently break rules or laws, or they don’t meet their obligations or responsibilities. You don’t want to come out swinging—start out by asking for their cooperation politely and assume their noncompliance was due to oversight. If they still don’t comply, then you can start to use a more aggressive tone.

Here are some strategies we teach in our courses:

Avoid the word NOT

Look for the word ‘not.’ It’s usually part of a negative phrase that you can replace with positive alternatives.

Avoid negative trigger words

These are words and phrases that carry negative energy. They can trigger a strong negative response in your reader. Take a look at the list and notice which ones you find upsetting. Scan your own writing for negative triggers as part of the editing process and try to remove them.

Prefer positive trigger words

Express your ideas in positive terms

Instead of saying what something isn’t, say what it is. Instead of telling someone what they can’t do, say what they can do. Expressing your ideas is positive terms makes them easier to remember, and easier to understand. Remember that when you express something in negative terms, the reader needs to flip it over to positive in order to act on it. If you tell them what they can’t do, they have to figure out what they can do. Make it easy for them.

Before: Don’t forget to submit your expenses.
After: Please remember to submit your expenses.

Before: You can’t edit your file while the printer is printing it.
After: You can edit your file when the printer is finished printing.

Here’s an example from the SEC’s A Plain English Handbook.

Before: Persons other than the primary benefactor may not receive these dividends.
After: Only the primary benefactor may receive these dividends.

Want some more practice? Test your skills with the new Make it Positive quiz and enter our current writing contest, which challenges you to change a passage from negative to positive.

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We read a terrific book on email called SEND: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. Here are some pointers you might find helpful for writing emails with different purposes.

1. Requesting
Make sure your tone is appropriate for your reader. Consider your relationship: are you asking for something from a friend, your boss or your direct report? Every relationship will require a different tone. Always be polite and follow up gently.

It’s best to ask for one thing, or several things related to that one thing. Keep your focus clear. If you are requesting several unrelated things, write separate emails.

Make sure your request stands out. Put it up front—don’t bury it at the end of your message. Be direct and respectful.

2. Responding
Put your response up front, even if it’s bad news. If you are embedding several responses, use a different colour. If the email will be printed and filed, the colour won’t show up, so use a different font.

If you need time to respond, let the reader know. Use an out-of-office auto responder if you are away for a day or more.

3. Informing
Email is ideal for sharing information. To let your reader know it’s just information and there’s no need to act, use an FYI in the subject line. Being cc’d in an email similarly means you need to know about but not act upon the message.

4. Thanking
It’s polite to thank someone who does something for you, and it’s nice to be thanked. However, beware of never-ending thank you/you’re welcome chains. Make sure your reader wants to be thanked. Some don’t! If you don’t want your inbox cluttered up with thank you’s, use NRN (no response necessary) in your subject line. And remember to let people know what it means the first few times you use it.

5. Apologizing
If you’re apologizing for a big blunder, maybe email isn’t the best medium. Pick up the phone, or pay a visit instead.

6. Connecting
This is one thing email excels at. The best emails have a friendly tone and use the beginnings and endings to make a personal connection.

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You know how this one ends: “…or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at your earliest convenience.”

The purpose of this sentence is to show sincerity and invite your reader to interact with you. But it does just the opposite. Instead of reading this closing as sincere, readers recognize it for what it is: a cliché that is overused and meaningless. It’s a lazy way of closing a letter and shows readers they are not special. And even though (especially if) your readers use it themselves, they recognize it for what it is: a cop out.

At one time, I used to argue that this closing was redundant, that by now readers KNOW they can ask questions or share concerns—no need to tell them. Further, they will feel encouraged to respond with a question or comment if the whole tone of the letter or email is warm and conversational. If they sense a real person behind the writing, they will feel connected and comfortable responding. Still, most people feel the need to close their correspondence with an explicit invitation to interact.

If you must have such a closing, at least make it engaging. Write what you would comfortably say to your reader, given your relationship. Here are some reasonable options, in no special order:

• Please call me if you have any questions.
• Let me know if you need more information.
• Give me a shout if you have any questions.
• Questions? Call me.
• I look forward to hearing your comments.

How about you? What closing are you comfortable with?

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Thanks to the Internet and email, customers can reach you from all over the world. If you write emails to your global customers in English, it’s a good idea to avoid using idioms – words or phrases whose meanings are not understood from the individual words themselves.
For instance we understand what “spread ourselves too thin” means, but someone not familiar with this expression, or idiom, might be confused by it. Other examples of idioms include:

24/7
give the green light
a win-win
on the go
across the board
rain check
bend over backwards
right up our alley
brand new
think outside the box
fall through the cracks
touch base

Instead of using idioms, substitute a more literal expression.

For instance, instead of writing or saying, “I agree the session was Mickey Mouse,” write “I agree the session was poorly run.”

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Responding to complaints is one of the most challenging writing tasks; it’s difficult to be cool, rational and positive when faced with a customer who might be furious and insulting.

It helps to remember that when customers take the time to complain, they’re doing you a huge favour. First, they help you identify services or procedures needing improvement. Second, by voicing their problem, they give you a chance to fix it. And this is the real opportunity: solving your customer’s problems is a great way to develop and strengthen your relationship with them.

Here are a few tips to help you respond positively to your customers:

• Approach the letter or email by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. Imagine how he or she perceives the problem. Remember: it’s not personal.
• Acknowledge the problem. Admit when the customer is right. Don’t try to cover up or create an alibi.
• Avoid providing all the details of an error—focus on how the error was corrected.
• Say you’re sorry, but don’t overdo it.
• Avoid using negative trigger words like ‘complaint’ and ‘error.’
• Let your anger cool before you start writing.

If well written, these letters can make the difference between a customer who is your greatest advocate and one who’s lukewarm and open to competitive offers.

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Most of us would agree that trying to manage conflict through email can be disastrous. Instead of helping to solve problems, email can cause disputes to escalate.

According to a study by Raymond Friedman and Steven Curral, some of the benefits of email are responsible for its tendency to escalate conflict.

• Email is asynchronous, which means you can read and reply to messages at your convenience. But reading in isolation, without the corrective feedback and clarification we’d get in a telephone or face-to-face exchange, means misunderstandings can easily arise. When this happens, the latter parts of a message are read in the context of these misunderstandings, and conflict is created.
• Email is a great equalizer—everyone is accessible. Email exchanges depend less on the awareness of status and social ties than on pure logic and ideas. Also, because we write email in isolation, it’s an asocial activity. This makes it easy to forget the humanness of our recipient. Consequently, email style tends to be more serious and less friendly, more aggressive and less polite.
• Email is reviewable and revisable. We can thoughtfully review emails we receive and revise ones we send. But knowing a writer has thought through a message we perceive as negative can make a problem seem bigger. And when we carefully craft our response, we tend to have greater psychological investment in our arguments and become more entrenched in our positions.

When conflict arises, it’s far better to talk things out on the phone or face-to-face. If this is impossible due to space or time restraints here are some reminders:

• Be aware that some perceived insults are unintended. The other party may be acting without feedback or social cues, and with too much time to ruminate.
• Watch for enhanced aggressiveness and check your own responses.
• Remember that your responses can also be interpreted as being more aggressive than intended – reread before sending and anticipate your reader’s reaction.
• Remind yourself of your relationship with the other party. Include in your message reminders of this relationship.
• Avoid being hyper-rational. Remember that differences are resolved using emotion and relationships – not just logic.

Thanks to Rita Vine who sent us this article. Read the original study.

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Have you noticed that the word tone has recently acquired a negative connotation, as in “Ohhhhh, that email has tone!”

Traditionally, tone refers to the emotional quality of a document. For instance, we might describe the tone of a document as conversational, formal, pompous, warm, or negative. It’s impossible to write anything without tone. Instead, a document’s tone can be effective or ineffective. We teach our participants how to achieve an effective tone by being more aware of the stylistic choices available to them and the context in which they write.

Today, when participants talk about emails with tone, they’re really talking about emails with that are negative and unprofessional. Emails with bad tone are bad for business. They contribute to a negative corporate culture, and emails with ‘tone’ sent to external customers can mean the loss of business.

It’s best to write emails with a positive attitude by paying attention to the words and expressions they choose. Many people use negative language without being aware that they’re doing so.

Here’s a list of negative words and phrases to avoid:

Afraid
Blame
But
Can’t
Don’t
Fault
Impossible
Late
Must
Obviously
Regret
Reject
Unfortunately
Blew it
Beyond repair
Huge problem
It won’t work
It’s not my responsibility
I’m fed up
Screwed it up
You can’t

And here are some words we recommend you use to create a more positive tone:

Agree
Alternatives
Approval
Best
Confident
Easy
Flexible
Generous
Idea
Improve
Increase
Loyal
Opportunity
Positive
A new perspective
Achieve goals
Commitment to the company (you, quality…)
Fresh thinking
Good point
Win-win situation

Can you add to these lists?

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