POSITIVE EMPHASIS

Start by asking these questions:

 How do I create positive emphasis?

 Why do I need to think about the tone, politeness and power?

 What’s the best way to apologize?

Some negatives are necessary.

 Straightforward negatives build credibility when you have

bad news to give the reader.

 Negatives may help people take problem seriously.

 Your purpose is to deliver a rebuke with no alternative.

Avoid insults or attacks on the reader’s integrity or

sanity. Being honest about the drawbacks of a job reduces

turnover.

 Some negatives create a “reverse psychology” that makes

people look favorably at your product.

o Researchers Annette N. Shelby and N. Lamar Reinsch,

Jr., found that business people responded more

positively to positive rather than to negative language

and were more likely to say they would act on a

positively worded request.

 o Dr. Martin Seligman was studying insurance salespeople

in the Met Life Company. He found those people who

scored above average for optimism sold 37% more

insurance. As a result, Met Life began hiring optimists

even when they failed to meet other criteria.

Positive emphasis is a way of looking at things. Is the bottle

half empty or half full? You can create positive emphasis with

the words, information, organization, and layout you choose.

How do I create positive emphasis?

Deemphasize or omit negative words and information.

The following five techniques deemphasize negative information:

1. Avoid negative words and words with negative connotations.

How to replace negative words with positive words?

EXAMPLE

Negative: We have failed to finish taking inventory.

Better: We haven’t finished taking inventory.

Still better: We will be finished taking inventory

Friday.
2. Focus on what the reader can do rather on limitations.

EXAMPLE

Negative: We will not allow you to charge more than

$1,500 on your VISA account

Better: You can charge P1,500 on your new VISA card.

Or: Your new VISA card gives you $1,500 in credit that

can use at thousands of stores nationwide.

3. Justify negative information by giving a reason or linking it

to reader benefit.

EXAMPLE

Negative: We cannot sell computer disks in lots of

less than 10.

Loophole: To keep down packaging costs and to help you

save on shipping and handling costs, we sell computer

disks in lots of 10 or more.

Better: To keep down packaging costs and to help

customers save on shipping and handling costs we sell

computer disks only in lots of 10 or more

4. If the negative is truly unimportant, omit it.

EXAMPLE
 Negative: A one-year subscription to PC Magazines is

$49.97. That rate is not as low as the rates charged

for some magazines.

Better: A one-year subscription to PC Magazine is

$49.97.

Still better: A one-year subscription to PC Magazine is

$49.97. You save 43% off the newsstand price of $87.78.

5. Bury the negative information and present it compactly.

The beginning and end are always positions of emphasis. Put

negatives here only if you want to emphasize the negative, as you

may in a negative message. To deemphasize a negative, put it in

the middle of the paragraph rather than in the first or last

sentence, in the middle of the message rather that in the first

or last paragraphs.

Why do I need to think about tone, politeness, and power?

 Use courtesy title for people outside your organization

whom you don’t know well.

 Be aware of the power of implication of the words you

use.

Order (lowest politeness): Turn in your time card by Monday.

Polite order (midlevel politeness): Please turn in your time card

by Monday.

Indirect request (higher politeness): Time cards should be

turned in by Monday.

Question (highest politeness): Would you be able to turn in your

time card by Monday?

EXAMPLE

Lower politeness: To start the scheduling process,

please describe your availability for meetings during

the second week of the month.

Higher politeness: Could you let me know what times

you’d be free for a meeting the second week of the

month?

Poor tone: Return the draft with any changes by next

Tuesday.

Better tone: Let me know by Tuesday whether you’d like

any changes in the draft.

 When the stakes are low, be straightforward for example:

 Poor tone: Distribution of the low fat plain granola may be

limited in your area. May we suggest that you discuss this

matter with your store manager.

Better tone: Our low fat granola is so popular that there

isn’t enough to go around. We are expanding production to

meet the demand. Ask your store manager to keep putting in

orders, so that your grocery is on the list of store that

will get supplies when they become available.

 When you must give bad news, consider hedging your

statement.

What’s the best way to apologize?

Early, briefly, and sincerely.

No explicit apology is necessary if the error is small and if you

are correcting the mistake.

Negative: I am sorry the clerk did not credit account

properly.

Better: Your statement has been corrected to include your

payment of $263.75.
Do not apologize when you are not at fault.

Negative: I’m sorry that I could not answer your question

sooner. I had to wait until the sales figures for the second

quarter were in.

Better (neutral or bad news): We needed the sales figures

for the second quarter to answer your question. Now that

they’re in, I can tell you that….

Better (good news): The new advertising campaign is a

success. The sales figures for the second quarter are

finally in, and they show that…

When you apologize, do it early, briefly and sincerely.

Negative: I’ m sorry I didn’t answer your letter sooner. I

hope that my delay hasn’t inconvenienced you.

Better: I’m sorry I didn’t answer your letter sooner.

READER BENEFITS
Reader benefits are benefits or advantages that the reader gets

by

 Using your services.

 Buying your products.

 Following your policies

 Adopting your ideas.

Reader benefits are important in both informative and

persuasive messages. In informative messages, reader benefits

give reasons to comply with the policies you announce and suggest

that the policies are good ones. In persuasive messages, reader

benefits give reasons to act and help to overcome reader

resistance. Negative messages do not use reader benefits.

Good reader benefits are

 Adapted to the audience.

 Based on intrinsic advantages.

 Supported by clear logic and explained in adequate detail.

 Phrased in you-attitude.

Why do reader benefits work?

 Reader benefits improve the audience’s attitude and actions.

Reader benefits improve both the attitudes and the behavior of

the people you work with and write to. They make people view you

more positively; they make it easier for you to accomplish your

goals.

Expectancy theory says most people try to do your best only

when they believe they can succeed and when they want the rewards

that success brings.

How do I identify reader benefits?

Brainstorm

1. Think of the feelings, fears, and needs that may motivate your

reader. Then identify features of your product or policy that

meet those needs.

Abraham H. Moslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 Physical needs are the most basic, followed by needs for

safety and security, for love and sense of belonging, for esteem

and recognition, and finally for self-actualization or self-

fulfillment.

2. Identify the features of your product or policy. Then think

how these features could benefit the audience.

Feature: Bottled water

Benefits: Is free from chemicals, pollutants

Tastes good

Has no calories

Is easy to carry to class; can be used while biking,

driving, hiking.
Feature: Closed captions on TV

Benefits: Enables hard-of-hearing viewers to follow dialogue

Helps speakers of English as a second language learn

phrases and idioms.

Helps small children learn to read.

How detailed should each benefit be?

Use strong, vivid details.

You’ll usually need at least three to five sentences to give

enough details about a reader benefit. If you develop two or

three reader benefits fully, you can use just a sentence or two

for less important benefits. Develop reader benefits by linking

each feature to the readers’ needs – and provide details to make

the benefit vivid!

Weak: We have placemats with riddles.

Better: Answering all the riddles on Monical’s special placemats

will keep the kids happy till your pizza comes. If they don’t

have time to finish (and they may not, since your pizza is ready
so quickly), just take the riddles home- or answer them on your

next visit.

Make your reader benefits specific.

Weak: You get quick service.

Better: If you only have an hour for lunch, try our Business

Buffet. Within minutes, you can choose from a variety of main

dishes, vegetables, and make-your-own-sandwich-and-salad bar.

You’ll have a lunch that’s as light or filling as you want, with

time to enjoy it – and still be back to the office on time.

Psychological description is a technique you can use to

develop vivid, specific reader benefits. It means creating a

scenario rich with sense impressions - what the reader sees,

hears, smells, tastes, fells - so readers can picture themselves

using your product or service and enjoying its benefits.

Feature: Snooze alarm

Benefit: If the snooze button is pressed, the alarm goes off and

comes on again nine minutes later.

Psychological description: Some mornings, you really want to

stay in bed just a few more minutes. With the Sleepytime Snooze
Alarm, you can snuggle under the covers for a few extra winks,

secure in the knowledge that the alarm will come on again to get

you up for that breakfast meeting with an important client. If

you don’t have to be anywhere soon, you can keep hitting the

snooze alarm for up to an additional 63 minutes of sleep. With

Sleepytime, you’re in control of your mornings.

In psychological description, you’re putting your reader in

a picture. If the reader doesn’t feel that the picture fits, the

technique backfires. To prevent this, psychological description

often uses subjunctive verbs (“if you like...” “if you were...”)

or the words maybe and perhaps.

How do I decide which benefits to use?

Use the following three principles to decide.

1. Use at least one benefit for each part of your audience.

Most of messages go to multiple audiences.

Ex. In a memo announcing a company subsidized day care program,

you want the benefits not only for parents who might use the

service but also for the people who don’t have children or whose

children are older.

Reader benefits for these last two audiences help convince them

that spending money on day care is good use of scarce funds.

2. Use intrinsic benefits.

Intrinsic benefits come automatically from using a product or

doing something. Extrinsic benefits are “added on”.

EXAMPLE

ACTIVITY EXTRINSIC REWARD INTRINSIC REWARD

Making a sale. Getting a Pleasure in

commission. convincing someone;

pride in using your

talents to think of

a strategy and

execute it.

Turning in a Getting a monetary Solving problem at

suggestion to a reward when the work; making the

company suggestion suggestion is work environment a

system. implemented. little more

pleasant.

Intrinsic rewards are better than extrinsic benefits for two

reasons:
1. There just aren’t enough extrinsic rewards for everything you

want people to do. You can’t give a prize to every customer every

time he or she places an order or to every subordinate who does

what he or she is supposed to do.

2. Research suggests that you’ll motivate subordinates more

effectively by stressing intrinsic benefits of following policies

and adopting proposals.

Frederick Herzberg found that the things people said they

liked about their jobs were all intrinsic rewards - pride in

achievement, an enjoyment of a work itself, responsibility.

Extrinsic features - pay, company policy - were sometimes

mentioned as things people disliked, but they were never cited as

things that motivated or satisfies them.

3. Use the benefits you can develop most fully.

Use benefits that you can develop in three to five sentences or

more. A reader benefit is a claim or assertion that the reader

will benefit if he or she does something. Convincing the reader,

therefore, involves two steps: making sure that the benefit

really will occur and explaining it to the reader.

Faulty logic: Using a computer will enable you to write letters,

memos, and reports much more quickly.

Analysis: If you’ve never used a computer, in the short run it

will take you longer to create a document using a computer than

it would to type it. Even after you know how to use a computer

and its software, the real time savings comes when a document

incorporates parts of the previous documents or goes through

several revisions. Creating a first draft from scratch will still

take planning and careful composing; the time savings may or may

not be significant.

Revised reader benefit: Using a computer allows you to revise and

edit a document more easily. It eliminates retyping as a separate

step and reduces the time needed to proofread revisions. It

allows you to move the text around on the page to create the best

layout.

Making that logic evident to the reader is a matter of

providing enough evidence and showing how the evidence proves the

claim that there will be a benefit.

You’ll need more detail in the following situations:

1. The reader may not have thought of the benefit before.

2. The benefit depends on the difference between the long run

and the short run.

3. The reader will be hard to persuade, and you need detail to

make the benefit vivid and emotionally convincing.

What else do reader benefits need?

Check for your attitude.

If reader benefits aren’t in you-attitude, they’ll sound selfish

and won’t be as effective as they could be. It doesn’t matter how

you phrase reader benefits while you’re brainstorming and

developing them, but in your final draft, edit for you-attitude.

Lacks you-attitude: We have the lowest prices in town.

You-attitude: At Havlichek Cars, you got the best deal in town.

Submitted by: Erickson S. Magdasoc

Subject: Communication Skills & Development

Topic: Positive Emphasis & Reader Benefits

Reference: Business Communication 4th Edition by Kitty O. Locker

& Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek