Endings

•If you have a good alternative, refer to it in your

ending.
•Avoid endings that seem insincere.
We are happy to have been of service, and should we
be able to assist you in the future, please contact us.
This ending lacks you –attitude and would not be good
even in a positive message.
In a situation where the company has just refused to
help. It’s likely to sound sarcastic or sadistic.
Tone in Negative Messages
•Tone – the implied attitude of the author toward the reader
and the subject- is particularly important when you want
readers to feel that you have taken their requests seriously.
•Check your draft carefully for positive emphasis and
you-attitude, both at the level of individual words and at the
level of ideas.
•Even the physical appearance and timing of a letter can
convey tone.
•An obvious from rejection letter suggests that the writer has
not given much consideration to the reader’s application.
•An immediate negative suggests that the rejection didn’t
need any thought.
•A negative delivered just before a major holiday seems
especially unfeeling.

Alternate Strategies for Negative Situations

Whenever you face a negative situation, consider
recasting it as a positive or persuasive message.
Recasting the Situation as a Positive Message
If the negative information will directly lead to a benefit
that you know readers want, use the pattern or
organization for informative and positive messages.
Situation: you’re raising parking rates to pay for lot
maintenance, ice and snow removal, and signs so renters can
have cars towed away that park in their spots- all services
have asked for.
Negative: effective May 1, parking rentals will go up $5 a
month.
Positive: effective May 1, if someone parks in your spot, you
can have the car towed away. Signs are being put up
announcing that all spaces in the lot are rented. Lot
maintenance is also being improved. The lot will be
resurfaced this summer, and arrangements have been made
for ice and snow removal next winter.
Recasting the Situation as a Persuasive Message

•Often a negative situation can be recast as a persuasive

message.
•If you organization has a problem, ask readers to help
solve it .
•A solution that workers have created will be much easier
to implement.
Humor in Negative Messages

•Humor can defuse negative messages.

•Humor works best when it’s closely related to the specific
situation and the message.
•Humor that seems tacked on is less likely to work.
•Never use humor that belittles readers.
Writing Negative E-mail Messages

•Major negatives, like firing someone, should be delivered in

person, not by e-mail.

•But e-mail is appropriate for many less serious negatives.

•Never write e-mail messages when you’re angry.

•Use a friendly, conversational tone, keep the message short.

Varieties of Negative Messages
•Three of the most difficult kinds of negative message to
write are rejections and refusals, disciplinary notices
and negative performance appraisals, and layoffs and
firing.
Rejections and Refusals
•When you refuse requests from people outside your
organization, try to use a buffer.
•Give an alternative if one is available.
•Politeness and length help.
•Double-check the words in the draft to be sure the reason
cant backfire it is applied to other context.
•When you requests within your organization, use your
knowledge of the organization’s culture and of the specific
individual to craft your message.
Disciplinary Notices and Negative Performance Appraisals
•Performance appraisals will be positive when they are designed
to help a basically good employee improve.
•But when an employee violates a company rule or fails to
improve after repeated negative appraisals, the company may
discipline the employee or build a dossier to support firing him
or her.
•Present disciplinary notices and negative performance
appraisals directly, with no buffer.
•A buffer might encourage the recipient to minimize the
message’s importance – and might even become evidence in a
court case that the employee had not been told to shape up “or
else.”
•Cite quantifiable observations of the employee’s behavior,
rather than generalization or inferences based on it.

Layoffs and Firings

•If a company is in financial trouble, management needs to
communicate the problem clearly.
•Sharing information and enlisting everyone’s help in finding
solutions may make it possible to save jobs.
•Sharing information also means that layoffs notices, if they
become necessary, will be a formality; they should not be
new information to employees.
•Give the employee the real reason for the firing.
•Offering a face – saving reason unrelated to poor
performance can create legal liabilities.
•But avoid broadcasting the reason: to do so can leave the
company liable to a defamation suit.
•Information about layoffs and firings is normally delivered
orally but accompanied by a written statement explaining
severance pay or unemployment benefits that may be
available.
 Conveying Bad News About Orders
Unclear Orders
•When you have received an incomplete or unclear order
from a customer, your first job is to get the information
needed to complete the order.
Back Orders
•Use the indirect plan when telling a customer that you
cannot immediately ship the entire order.
Substitutions
•Use the indirect plan to notify a customer that you must
send a substitute, especially when the replacement is
more expensive than the original order.
Providing Bad News About Products

Consider the direct or indirect plan for telling the reader bad
news about a product.
Denying Cooperation with Routine Requests

•Consider the direct or indirect plan to tell someone you

cannot do what has been requested.
•Wording, tone, and format conspire to make a letter either
offensive or acceptable .

Declining Invitations and Requests for Favors

•The plan to use when saying no to an invitation or a

requested favor depends upon your relationship with the
reader.
Refusing Adjustment of Claims and Complaints

•Use the indirect plan in most cases of refusing to make an

adjustment.
•Keep in mind that a tactful and courteous letter can build
goodwill while denying a claim.
•When refusing to make an adjustment:
•Demonstrate understanding of the complaint
•Explain your refusal
•Suggest alternative action
Refusing to Extend Credit

•Credit is refused for a verity of reasons, all involving sensitive

personal or legal considerations.
•When denying credit to the applicant with a proven record of
delayed payments and the applicant with an unstable
background, you would be probably justified in doing so.
•In a letter denying credit to a business:
•Be more factual and less personal than in a letter to an
individual.
•Suggest ways to continue doing business.
•Beware that the credit is a legally sensitive subject.
Conveying Unfavorable News About People

Refusing to Write Recommendation Letters

In letters informing prospective employers that you will not

provide a recommendation, be direct, brief, and factual.

Rejecting Job Applications

In a letter turning down a job applicant, treat the reader with

respect; by applying for a job, he or she has complimented your
company.