How to Keep Business Writing Positive
Replacing Negative Words Once and For All!
Did you know that one negative word has the power of ten regular words to motivate and influence your reader? Most people respond very strongly to negative stimuli and frequently give it much more importance than it deserves. Think about a time when you received a negative e-mail. Unless you are very thick-skinned—and most people are not—you were probably quite upset by the tone of the e-mail even if the contents were not true.
Negative words have power and so you must use them sparingly. In fact, you want to try to remove all negative words from your business correspondence. By so doing, you are much more likely to get and keep clients and work effectively and efficiently with your colleagues.
What Not to Do
The following sentence is typical negative “businesspeak”:
We regret to inform you that we cannot process your request until you submit three signed copies of the contract.
How would you feel if you received this message? The writer of the message appears to be blaming you for not processing the request. How can that be? The writer is the one who is not able to process the request! The words “regret” and “cannot” are obviously negative and the word “until” feels slightly threatening. Even the word “submit” has slightly negative connotations. Would you rather submit a request or send a request?
How To Make Your Writing Positive
Here is the positive alternative:
We will be glad to process your request as soon as you send us three signed copies of the contract.
This small change from negative to positive makes the sentence much more pleasing to read and acknowledges the importance of the reader.
Going from Negative to Positive
Following is a list of sentences containing negative words along with alternative versions that use a positive tone. The positive versions do not “water down” the message or leave out information and yet they are considerably more effective than the negative versions. Why? The positive versions focus on positive action and show respect for the reader.
Negative Message 1: As written, the proposal contains far too many errors and should not be sent to the committee.
Positive Version: Please ensure the grammar in the attached proposal is corrected before you send it to the committee. Thanks!
Comments: The positive version tells the reader what action to take in order to correct the problem. People resent being scolded. Give them a positive action and withhold judgment.
Negative Message 2: The employees in this company lack teamwork skills and have a total dearth of ideas. Basically, they’re hopeless.
Positive Version: The employees need to work together to develop effective teamwork skills and cultivate new ideas. I suggest we hire a facilitator to help us get focused.
Comments: Who would want to work for a company that circulated the negative version? Instead of emphasizing what's wrong, find and communicate a positive action.
Negative Message 3: We are very sorry to learn of the problem you’ve had with our product.
Positive Version: Thank you for letting us know about the tear in the leather couch you purchased from us on April 5. We will certainly exchange the couch for a new one.
Comments: The customer never has a problem! Acknowledge the reader with a “thank you,” provide information about the specific situation, and then provide assistance.
Remember that the central purpose of business writing is to get the reader to take a required action. If you use negative words and offend your reader, your reader might not wish to act. Instead, the reader might either ignore your message, or worse, take the opposite action to the one the writer intended. In either case, effective communication stops.
A Quick Way to Go Positive
Here’s a tip! Every time you think of including a negative word in a message, think about the positive alternative. Instead of “You are wrong,” try writing “Please note that the required date is June 9” or something similar that focuses on the specific situation. Instead of writing “You are late,” write “Please be on time.”
You will quickly find ways to reframe negative messages to communicate in a clear and positive way that gets results.
Eliminate Negative Words
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