978-0073403267 Chapter 7 Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises

Type

Quiz

Book Title

Business Communication: Building Critical Skills 6th Edition

ISBN 13

978-0073403267

April 6, 2019

Module 07 - Positive Emphasis

Module 7

Positive Emphasis

LO 7-1 Apply strategies for positive emphasis use.

LO 7-2 Analyze situations for ethical positive emphasis.

LO 7-3 Explain reasons for tone, politeness, and power considerations.

LO 7-4 Identify situations for apologies.

Module Overview

Like you-attitude and reader benefits, positive emphasis is a cornerstone of building goodwill.

Students sometimes misunderstand the nature of positive emphasis. Using positive emphasis

does not mean lying or exaggerating to the audience. Positive emphasis means ethically using

language to express information in positive terms. Essentially, it is looking at the glass as “half

full” rather than half empty. Use Appendix 7-A to illustrate some basic ways of looking at

things positively.

Some negatives are necessary, though in most situations being

positive is better. As shown on PP 7-3 and PP 7-4, 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

favorably at your product or service.

Students should analyze their audience carefully when deciding on

the proper approach (see Module 2). Some audiences may in fact

want negative information put bluntly—though research by Shelby

and Reinsch suggests this is unlikely for most business audiences.

Students should also consider the rhetorical situation, as will be discussed throughout the

module. As illustrated on PP 7-3 and PP 7-4, the best revision may depend on the situation.

 Teaching Tip: Ask students what they think of people who are always negative or

speak using negative terms. Do students prefer the company of such individuals or

that of people who see things more positively? Ask if students would prefer

physicians, police officers, clergy, or teachers to be negative or positive. Why or

why not?

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 Teaching Tip: Ask students if they’ve done better in courses where they’ve viewed

the subject matter positively. If so, why do they think so? What is it about their

energy, enthusiasm, or discipline that was different in those courses versus the ones

they viewed negatively? What might this suggest about the effect of business

correspondence written in negative terms or with a negative tone? What might this

suggest about the importance of their attitude as it relates to business?

In-Class Exercise: Have students surf the Web for pages representing large

companies, such as Microsoft, American Express, or Chrysler Corporation. Ask

students to critique the pages for their use of positive emphasis. Which pages do the

best job? Which could be improved? Do these pages follow the guidelines

expressed in this module?

What’s in This Supplement

This supplement is organized around the major questions posed in Module 7. It covers

Part 1: Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises Page 101

Part 2: Answers to Textbook Assignments Page 109

Part 3: Appendixes of Handouts/Transparency Masters Page 111

PowerPoint presentations can be found at our Web page at www.mhhe.com/bcs6e.

Questions (with answers) suitable for quizzes are in the Instructor’s Test Bank. For student

practice quizzes with answers, see our Web page.

Part 1: Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises

How do I create positive emphasis? LO 7-1

Deemphasize or omit negative words and information.

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Module 07 - Positive Emphasis

A good approach to minimizing negative information is to deemphasize or omit negative words

and information.

PP 7-5 shows five techniques for deemphasizing 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.

 Teaching Tip: Ask students what the difference is between deemphasizing negatives

and hiding them. What are the ethical implications of hiding necessary negatives?

Should writers be held accountable if they fail to report necessary negatives? How

can they identify which negatives are necessary?

Figure 7.1 (p. 102) lists common negative words, some of which are

illustrated on PP 7-6 and Appendix 7-B. Use PP 7-7 through PP 7-18

to show corrections for negatives in sentences.

In-Class Exercise: Have students brainstorm additional

words and phrases that are negative or have negative

connotations. Ask students what alternatives they can think of for these words or

phrases. Make a master list. Ask for a student volunteer to type the list so that you

can make photocopies to distribute to your class.

Many negative words or phrases are unnecessary. Some, such as

hidden negatives, may seem neutral or even positive on the surface,

though they become negative in context.

 Teaching Tip: Discuss the differences between connotative

and denotative language. A good example to use is slang,

such as using the word “bad” to mean “good” in some

situations, versus its more common negative meaning. Ask

students to consider how connotation may change

according to audience. For instance, might the same

construction have two different meanings for two different

audiences? What examples can your students think of?

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Using positive emphasis ethically LO 7-2

Even deeply cynical audiences should recognize that when it comes to business ethics of late,

many professionals are pushing the envelope of what might be acceptable. Positive emphasis,

therefore, represents another opportunity for people to do harm if they believe simply making

something positive when it is not or omitting important information that people require is good

practice.

As PP 7-19 suggests,

The methods to achieve positive emphasis can be misused, so be

careful when using them.

Don’t omit necessary details.

Focus on what the reader can do rather than on limitations

only when the situation is appropriate.

Presenting information in type large enough to be read

easily.

Don’t obscure meaning by using less common terms.

 Teaching Tip: While many people use the terms morals and ethics interchangeably,

others see a distinction, often defining the former as judgments about right and

wrong and the latter about the rules or procedures to uphold certain values. Give

students 10-15 minutes to discuss their own interpretations of these terms. How do

they define them? Where do they get their sense of morality and ethics?

In-Class Exercise: People’s perspectives on ethics may change depending on

whether a situation applies to them or not. (If you dare), ask students about the ethics

of a Web site like www.ratemyprofessors.com. Is it ethical for students to post their

opinions, regardless of potential ramifications for instructors if they are

inflammatory or untrue? Should a website allow these comments to be posted

anonymously? What effort is made to determine the truthfulness of the comments?

What guarantees are provided that the comments are actually from the instructor’s

student or that the same student isn’t posting multiple times? After the students

finish, ask them if it is equally ethical to create a website called

www.ratemystudent.com, www.ratemyemployee.com, or www.ratemycoworker.com

and allow people to post things anonymously. Would students be comfortable with

potential employers and other reading opinions about them with the same

parameters? Why or why not?

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Module 07 - Positive Emphasis

Why do I need to think about tone, politeness, and power? LO 7-3

So you don’t offend people by mistake.

Tone and politeness are not just issues of civility, but also issues of power. Students entering a

workplace that on the surface seems casual—employees are on a first-name basis; suits are

optional—may be stunned to learn that power structures still exist.

Tone is the implied attitude of the writer toward the reader. What makes tone tricky is that it

interacts with power. The same tone used by a superior to a subordinate may be completely

inappropriate when used by the subordinate to the superior.

 Teaching Tip: Have students discuss the different forms of language they may use

with different audiences. For instance, how might students ask a friend to “be

quiet”? A small child? A parent or boss? A room full of noisy theatergoers? Why

might the way they express the same idea be different for different audiences? What

tone would they use for each situation?

In-Class Exercise: In this age of “shock jocks” and raunchy entertainment, what is

and isn’t considered polite may be hard for students to define. Have them write a 1-

to 2-page research memo on etiquette. What are common forms of politeness?

What “rules” exist and who determines them? What are current expectations for

politeness in the workplace? In society in general?

As shown on PP 7-20 and PP 7-21, students should use guidelines when

trying to achieve the tone they want.

Use courtesy titles for people outside the organization you don’t

know very well.

Be aware of the power implications of words you use.

When the stakes are low, be straightforward.

When you must give bad news, consider hedging your statement.

What’s the best way to apologize? LO 7-4

Early, briefly, and sincerely.

Students should be careful about apologizing in business. A written apology in particular may be

viewed as an admission of guilt or responsibility later in a court of law. As suggested in PP 7-22,

apologies are not necessary when

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An error is small and you are correcting the mistake.

You are not at fault.

When apologies are necessary, as further described on PP 7-22, they should be

Early, brief, and sincere.

 Teaching Tip: How and when to apologize may be

culturally determined. Have students review Module 3 for

information about different cultures’ perception of

politeness. Then have students share the cultural values they

grew up with. In what situations would they feel it

appropriate to apologize? In which would they not? Have

students share what they might do if the audience embraced

different cultural values.

Apologies alone generally fail to leave readers with a sense of goodwill. Typically, action must

be taken to correct mistakes. A message that simply expresses feeling but offers no actions may

seem “empty” to readers. Therefore, writers should plan on including a solution to problems,

rather than simply an apology.

 Teaching Tip: Ask students to recall times when they received an apology but no

action on correcting a mistake. How did they feel? Did they think the apology was

sincere? Did they believe the mistake should not have been made in the first place?

If the apology was related to a business situation, how did the students feel about the

organization that issued it?

Last Word: For some students, looking at the world in cynical terms is both

fashionable and preferred. Help students to understand that seeing the positive side

of things is at least as legitimate an approach, if not a healthier one. The business

world generally expects employees to concentrate on the positive—in tone,

language, attitude, and in focusing on solutions, not problems.

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