TM 7-1: Examples of Positive Emphasis

Looking at Situations Positively

Situation

Sentence
Emphasizing the
Positive

The bottle is half empty.

The bottle is half full.

You are putting your floor

samples and
demonstrators on sale.
These machines have been
in use several hours a day
for the past year.

All floor samples and

demonstrators are on
sale, so you get great
savings on machines that
have already
demonstrated their
quality and durability in
the store.

Your models havent sold

well this year, and as a
result, you have more cars
to get rid of in your endof-season clearance sale
than do your competitors.

While other dealers can

offer you only leftovers,
Midstate Motors still has
a full line of all our bestselling cars for you to
choose from.

TM 7-2: Exceptions to Positive Emphasis

Use negatives for

Building credibility when giving
bad news.
Helping people to take a problem
seriously.
Delivering a rebuke with no
alternative.
Creating a reverse psychology to
make people look favourably at
your product or service.

TM 7-3: Revising for Positive Emphasis

The Best Revision May Depend on the
Situation
Negative

Positive

1. If I can do anything else to

help, please do not hesitate
to call me.

1. If I can do anything else to

help, feel free to call me.
or
Is there any other
information you need?
or
OMIT THE SENTENCE.

2. Im very sorry about any

inconvenience that may
have resulted from my
delay in getting this
information to you.

2. OMIT THE SENTENCE.

or
Im sorry I couldnt get this
information to you
sooner.
or
The new advertising
campaign is a success.
Figures for the third
quarter are finally in, and
they show . . .

TM 7-4:
Five Techniques for De-emphasizing
Negatives

To de-emphasize negative
information
Avoid negative words and words
with negative connotations.
Focus on what the reader can do
rather than on limitations.
Justify negative information by
giving a reason or linking it to a
reader benefit.
If the negative is truly
unimportant, omit it.

 Put the negative information in the

middle and present it compactly.
TM 7-5: Common Negative Words
Afraid
Bad
Careless
Delay
Delinquent
Deny
Difficulty
Disapprove
Dishonest
Dissatisfied
Eliminate
Error
Fail
Fault
Fear
Impossible
Inadequate
Incomplete
Inconvenient
Injury

Loss
Misfortune
Mistake
Missing
Neglect
Never
No
Not
Problem
Reject
Sorry
Terrible
Trivial
Trouble
Wait
Weakness
Wrong
Unclear
Unfair
Unfortunate

TM 7-6: Achieving the Proper Tone

To achieve the tone you want

Use courtesy titles for people
outside the organization you dont
know very well.
Be aware of the power
implications of words.
When you must give bad news,
consider hedging your statement.

TM 7-7: Making Apologies

If youre planning to make an

apology, remember that
Apologies can have legal
implications.
You dont need to apologize if an
error is small and youre correcting
the mistake.
You dont need to apologize if
youre not at fault.
Necessary apologies should be
early, brief, and sincere.