From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Making your writing courteous

Making your writing courteous

From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Making your writing courteous

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- [Instructor] Human nature is that we all want to know what's in it for me, and we want a tone that doesn't cause us to become defensive or insulted. So courteous writing means using a positive tone and focusing on reader benefits. Let's first discuss the importance of having a positive tone and how to achieve it. A positive tone results from positive words. Negative words, often referred to as red flag words, cause us to have negative reactions. Negative words come in a variety of categories. The obvious no or not words, reminders of the negative situation, and doubtful words. Think how you react when someone says to you, "You can't." "You won't be able to." "You failed." Human nature is such that we immediately become defensive and reply with something such as, "Well, it wasn't my fault." "No one told me." Or, "You didn't make it clear what you wanted." If you can keep out all or at least most of the negatives,…

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