The Essence of Good Writing
Part Two- Understanding Your Relationships
Continued
Equally, you wouldn’t communicate to your boss or colleague in this tone: “I want to schedule a meeting with you tomorrow at 10. Make sure you bring those documents we talked about.” If you did, I suspect you wouldn't have a very good working relationship with either of them! The type of grammar being used in the second sentence is called “the imperative”, where the verb is at the beginning of the sentence. It is used for orders, and carries a strong sense of command. Unless you are very important, you should be careful about using this structure without the word “Please” in front of it. Even then, think twice before writing in this way, as it has a very powerful effect on the reader. In addition, the first sentence uses “want” to express a wish. This verb is too strong and conveys a very demanding tone, which would make the speaker appear very bossy indeed.
Thus, the key to writing and speaking with the correct tone is two-fold. You need to be aware of your audience’s status relative to your own- is he or she your “subordinate”, colleague, friend or “superior”? And, once you’ve got this clear in your mind, the hard part is then to write suitably so as not to disrespect them or yourself. To use a written example, here is a memo in the form of an email:
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To:All Members of Staff
From:A Boss
Date:XXXXXX
Subject:Holiday Notification
Because we are very short-staffed at the moment, if it's not too much trouble, would you all please remember to let Susie from HR know when you plan on taking your holiday leave this summer? Several members of staff have given us very short notice, which is sort of inconvenient and we would be very grateful if you could give us a month’s notice, because it causes us quite a bit of trouble otherwise.
Thanks ever so much! We really appreciate it!
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To Be Continue
