6. Pay attention to tone
Put in mind the larger purpose of all business writing: to communicate something. You should be writing only if you're interested in communicating something.
A piece of business writing can sometimes put those receiving it on the defensive, can even make them forget that you might have a positive purpose. Because of this potential defensiveness, the tone of any writing is important. People feeling defensive are ready to be upset; upset people--in fact, those in the grip of any emotion--are generally unable to hear you. So it is a simple matter of communications theory to try to keep your writing non-blaming and neutral, yet you need not aim for writing that is bland or forceless. The guidelines below may help you.
- Organize negative information carefully
- Say what is, not what isn't.
- Remove hostile words
- Avoid telling your reader what he or she thinks
- State the facts forcefully but be cautious about interpretation
- See quotation marks as red flags
- Write to the TO: line, not to the copy list
- Write full sentences when tone
is an issue
==>Guidelines