USING THE “YOU” ATTITUDE

Introduced tha notion of audience centred communication and tha “you” attitude –speaking and
writing in terms of your audience’s wishes, interests, hope ,and perfeance. On the simplest level,you
can adopt tha “you” attitude by replacing terms such as I,me,mine,we,us, and ours with you and
yours :

Instead of this :

Tuesday is tha only day that we can promise quick response to purchase order request;we are
swamped tha rest of tha week.

We offer MP3players with 50,75, or 100 gigabytes of storage capaciety.

Write this:

If you need a quick response, please submite your purchase order request on Tuesday.

You can choose an mp3 player with 50,75 or 100 gigabytes of storage.

However, the “you” attitude is more than simply using particular pronouns,it’s a matter of
demonstrating genuine interest in your readers and concern for their needs.you can use you 25
times in a single page and still offend your audience or ignore readres’ true concerns. If you’re
writing to a retailer ,try to think like a retailer;if you’re delaing with a producttoin supervisor, put
yourself in that position;if your’re writing to a dissatisfied customer imagine how you would fell at
the other end tha transaction.

Be aware that on some occasions its better to avoid using you, particularly if doing so will sound
overly authoritative or accusing :

Instend of this:

You failed to deliver tha customer’s order on time ,you must correct all five copies by noon.

Write this :

Tha customer didn’t reccived tha order on time.all five copies must be corrected by noon.

As you practice using tha “you” attitude ,be sure to consider tha attitudes of other cultures and tha
policies of your organization. In some cultures it is improper to single out one person;s achivements
because tha whole team is responsible for tha outcome; in that case ,using the pronoun we or our
(when you and your audience are part of the same team )would be more appropriate.similarly, some
companies have a tradition of avoiding references to you and l in most messages and reports.

MAINTAINING STANDARD OF ETIQUETTE

Good etiquette not only indicates respect for your audience but also helps foster a more successful
environment for communication by minimizing negative emotional reactions:

Instend of this :

Once again, you;ve managed to bring down tha entire website through your incompetend
programming.you;ve been sitting on our order for two week, and we need if now !

Write this :
Let’s review tha last website update to explore ways to improve tha process.our production
schedules depend on timely delivery of parts and supplies,but we have not yet received tha order
you promised to deliver two week ago. Plese respond today with a firm delivery commitment.

Even if a situation calls for you to be brutally honest,express tha facts of the matter in a kind and
thoughtfull manner.

Of course some situation required more dependency than other if you know when your audience
well, less formal approach may be more appropriate, however when you are communicating with
people who outrank you are with people outside your organization,and added measure of courtesy,
is usefully need, written communication and most firm are of digital communication generally
required more track than oral communication does, when you are speaking your words can be
softened by your tongue of voice of facial expression, plus you can adjust your approach according
to your feedback you get, if you are individually offend someone in writing or in a podcast: for e.g.
you don’t usually get immediate feedback you could need to resolve the situation, impact you were
never know that you offend your audience,

.EMPHASIZING THE POSITIVE

During your career, you will have many occasions in which you need to communi cate bad news.
However, there is a big difference between delivering negative news and being negative. When the
tone of your message is negative, you put unneces sary strain on business relationships. Never try to
hide negative news, but always be on the lookout for positive points that will foster a good
relationship with your audience:

Instead of This

It is impossible repair your laptop today

We wasted $300,000 advertising in that magazine.

Write This

Your computer can be ready by Tuesday Would you like a loaner until then?

Our $300,000 advertising investment did not pay off. Let's analyze the experience and apply the
insights to future campaigns.
If you find it necessary to criticize or correct, don't dwell on the other person's mistakes. Avoid
referring to failures, problems, or shortcomings. Focus instead on. what the audience members can
do to improve the situation:

Instead of This:

The problem with this department is a failure to control costs.

You failed to provide all the necessary information on the previous screen.

Write this:

The performance of this department can be improved by tightening cost controls. Please review the
items marked in red on the previous screen so that we can process your order as quickly as possible.

If you're trying to persuade audience members to buy a product, pay a bill, or perform a service,
emphasize what's in it for them. When people recognize the benefits of doing so, they are more
likely to respond positively to your appeal.

Instead of This

We will notify all three credit reporting agencies if you do not pay your overdue bill within 10 days.

I am tired of seeing so many errors in the customer service blog

Write this:

Paying your overdue bill within 10 days will prevent a negative entry on your credit record.

Proofreading your blog postings will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes that gen erate more
customer service complaints.

In general, try to state your message without using words that may hurt or offend your audience.
Look for appropriate opportunities to use euphemisms words or phrases that express a thought in
milder terms-that convey your meaning without carrying negative or unpleasant connotations. For
example, one common cuphemism is referring to people beyond a certain age as "senior citi zens
rather than "old people." Senior conveys respect in a way that old does not.

Euphemisms can bring a tone of civility to unpleasant communication, but they must be used with
great care because they are so easy-and so tempting to misuse. Euphemisms can be annoying if they
force readers to read between the lines" to get the message, and they can be unethical if they
obscure the truth. For instance, one of the toughest messages a manager ever has to write is an
internal memo or email announcing layoffs. This is a difficult situation for everyone involved, and
managers can be tempted to resort to euphemisms such as streamlining, restructuring, improving
efficiency, reducing layers, or eliminating redundancies to avoid using the word layoff. Doing so
might case the emotional burden on the writer and promote the illusion that the message isn't as
negative as it really is. However, these cuphemisms can fail the "you" attitude test, as well as the
standards of ethical information, by failing to answer the question every reader in these situations
has, which is simply, Am I going et up to to lose my job?

If you are considering using a euphemism, ask yourself this question: Are you trying to protect the
reader's feelings or your own feelings? Even if it is unpleas ant, people generally respond better to
an honest message delivered with integrity than they do to a sugar-coated message that obscures
the truth.

USING BIAS-FREE LANGUAGE

Bias-free language avoids words and phrases that unfairly and even unethically cat egorize or
stigmatize people in ways related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, dis ability, or other personal
characteristics. Contrary to what some may think, biased unfairly language is not simply about
"labels." To a significant degree, language reflects the cally ca way we think and what we believe,
and biased language may well perpetuate the people. underlying stereotypes and prejudices it
represents. Moreover, because communica tion is all about perception, simply being fair and
objective isn't enough. To estab lish a good relationship with your audience, you must also appear to
be fair. Good communicators make every effort to change hiased language (see Table 2A.1). Bias can
come in a variety of forms:

. Gender bias . Avoid sexist language by using the same labels for everyone, regardless of gender.
Don't refer to a woman as chairperson and then to a man as chairman. Use chair, chairperson, or
chairman consistently. (Note that it is not uncommon to use chairman when referring to a woman
who heads a board of directors. Archer Daniels Midland's Patricia Woertz and Xerox's Ursula Burns,
for example, both refer to themselves as "chairman.") Reword sentences to use they or to use no
pronoun at all rather than refer to all individuals as he. Note that the preferred title for women in
business is Ms. unless the individual asks to be addressed as Miss or Mrs. or has some other title,
such as Dr .
Racial and ethnic bias. Avoid identifying people by race or ethnic origien

unless such a label is relevant to the matter at hand-and it rarely is.

• Age bias. Mention the age of a person only when it is relevant. Moreover, be careful of the context
in which you use words that refer to age; such words carry a variety of positive and negative
connotations. For example, young can imply energy, youthfulness, inexperience, or even immaturity,
depending on how it's used.

• Disability bias. Physical, mental, sensory, or emotional impairments should never be mentioned in
business messages unless those conditions are directly relevant to the subject. If you must refer to
someone's disability.