One of the principal problems with communication is that no two people delete, distort, or generalize in quite the same way. Previous experience, beliefs, values, and psychological state (how we are feeling at the time) all influence the meaning each of us derives from any new experience. When we attempt to put our thoughts into language, we again delete, distort, and generalize.

Think of someone you know, for example. How could you possibly say everything possible about that person? How could you possibly express your thoughts and feelings about that person completely accurately or without generalizing? Even something as simple as a piece of chalk has a history (where did it come from, how was it processed, manufactured, and sold) and a variety of uses. How long would it take for you to say everything that could be said about a piece of chalk?

In most cases, we don’t need to know everything about something to communicate successfully. We should, however, remember that communication is always incomplete and less than perfect and that the better our language skills and the better our understanding of the communication process, the better able we are to communicate effectively.

This is one of the reasons to ensure that your business correspondence meets the reader’s probable expectations for appearance and correctness. If you are claiming to be a careful person who pays attention to detail, but your document uses an inappropriate format or contains errors in spelling, grammar, and mechanics, the reader may well pay more attention to what you have done than to what you have said.

That car costs a lot of money.

What car did you think of, and how much would you guess it costs? Think about people you know—what car do you think that they would think of, and how much would they say it costs? Now, think about the cost of the car again. Are you thinking of the same car and same cost as you did the first time, or did different possibilities occur to you this time? If you are like most people, once you have considered what others might have thought, your own perspective will have changed. The meanings of words are not fixed but vary from person to person, from context to context, and from time to time.

Because language is inherently ambiguous, you will be more effective when you take specific steps to reduce those ambiguities that could result in the greatest problems. These typically fall into the following categories (compare these with the information about the Metamodel in section on Advanced Language Patterns:

• Unspecified nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. In the sample sentence given previously (That car costs a lot of money), car and a lot are unspecified. Whenever a term is not specified by the speaker or writer, the listener or reader tends to supply his or her own meaning. The alternative for the receiver of the message is to ask a question that helps provide the deletion, the missing information: What car specifically? What do you mean by a lot?

  Another common deletion occurs with unspecified pronouns: Someone needs to assume responsibility for this. Who specifically needs to assume responsibility? What exactly is this? Passive voice can often exacerbate the lack of specification: Responsibility needs to be assumed. We may need to know who will assume responsibility.

  In general, your communication, especially your written communication, will be more effective if you identify unspecified nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in your own messages and fill in the deletion yourself.

• Nominalizations. A word or phrase used as a noun is called a nominal. Like other nouns, nominals may be specific or unspecific. If I say, “Flying is the best way to travel,” the nominal, flying, would cause fewer problems than the incomplete comparison, best. A nominalization, however, is a verb (a word describing a process or action) that has been made into a noun (a word describing a thing or an event). Nominalizations constitute a special class of unspecified nouns because they obscure the underlying process or action. The test for a nominalization is whether you can see it, hear it, touch it, smell it, or taste it. If you can’t (or if you can’t put it in a wheelbarrow) it is a nominalization.
  • Jack is a professional.
  • Mary had an accident.
  • How much excitement can you stand?
  • Curiosity killed the cat.
  • Your solution has caused nothing but confusion.
  
  

  Nominalizations may cause problems because people tend to think that others mean the same thing when they use them as they would. We both may call someone a “professional,” for example, while having a complete different set of behavioral traits in mind.

• Unspecified verbs. Consider the following sentence: I can improve your computer skills. In this sentence, improve is an unspecified verb. The listener or reader can only guess at what the speaker or writer might mean by improve. The question that needs to be asked is, How specifically will you improve them?

  In general, your communication, especially your written communication, will be more effective if you identify unspecified verbs in your own messages and fill in the deletion yourself.

• Faulty comparisons. There are two forms of faulty comparison. In the first, a comparative is used without a specification: Brand X gives you more! More what? Or, more than some other brand? The second type of faulty comparison compares two (or more) things that cannot logically be compared: Susan’s car is nicer than Jill. In this second example, Susan’s car is being compared with Jill, a person. Another example would be, Oranges are better than fruit. This comparison is faulty because oranges are a fruit—the categories are not mutually exclusive, so no comparison is possible.

  In general, your communication will be more effective if you complete your comparisons and check to ensure that you are comparing like items.

• Unwarranted generalizations. The most common unwarranted generalizations use the words always and never. You always do that! You never finish your homework on time!   Whenever we read or hear always and never, we need to ask ourselves whether such a sweeping generalization is warranted. Common unwarranted generalizations can also begin with the word “most”: Most people think that our health care system needs reform.

  To increase the effectiveness of your communication, check your use of generalizations to ensure their accuracy. If they are too sweeping, change your wording: You’ve done that three times in the past hour. You finished your homework on time just once this past week.

• Faulty predication. Faulty predication is also known as selectional restriction violation. This type of ambiguity occurs when the subject of a sentence cannot logically perform the action specified by the verb: My car prefers to turn left. Automobiles don’t have preferences. In business communication, faulty predication occurs most often when individuals blame the organization for actions they are taking: The Company has decided that more people need to be laid off. Organizations do not make decisions; individuals do.

  When clarity is an important objective, check your subjects and verbs to make sure that each subject can actually perform the action specified by the verb. Be especially aware of is when and is where definitions, which are a special class of faulty predication:

  Not this: A car is when you have a vehicle with four wheels and an engine.
  Say this: A car is a vehicle with four wheels and an engine.

  Not this: College is where students learn about life.
  Say this: College offers students the opportunity to learn about life.

  Also, avoid confusing metaphors with faulty predication. A book, for example, can metaphorically fly across the room, but it can’t logically fly from Chicago to Los Angeles. If its executives make bad decisions, an organization can metaphorically sink like a rock, but it can’t logically file for bankruptcy.

• Arbitrary rules. Such words as should (or should not), must (must not), have to, need to, and can’t indicate a rule in operation: We must have the report ready by 10:00 in the morning. The question to ask here is, What would happen if we didn’t?

  In general, communication is more effective when it relies on reasons and logical consequences rather than arbitrary rules. Rather than simply giving the rule, provide the reason or the logical consequence:

  Not this: We must submit our report by 10:00A tomorrow.

  Say this: To ensure that we are considered for the contract, we must submit our report by 10:00A tomorrow.

• Don’t think of elephants.
• Don’t look now, but the person behind you is. . . .
• Don’t be angry, but. . . .
• Don’t worry about it. . . .
• The dog is not chasing the cat.
• I am not a crook.
• The sky is not blue today.

What does your brain do with the negative word not in those sentences? Do you automatically think of elephants even when you are told not to? When someone tells you not to look, do you feel compelled to do so? Because negatives exist in language but not in the reality of our external environment (unless we happen to be physicists studying antimatter), the brain has to go through a two-step process to understand negative constructions. It must think of the positive before negating it. Therefore, the positive thought, the positive meaning, always occurs before the negative.

Your communication will generally be more effective when you say what you want and what you will do (either for yourself or for the other person) rather than what you don’t want. Because some people are motivated more strongly by moving away from the undesirable (avoiding pain) than they are by the possibility of a positive gain (experiencing pleasure), negative concepts are useful at certain times. Consider the following sentences:

• Don’t smoke.
• If you continue to smoke, you’ll develop lung disease.
• You’ll feel better after you have stopped smoking.

Note that the negative command, Don’t smoke, almost guarantees the development of the desire to smoke. The next sentence gives the person addressed a negative consequence to move away from, and the third sentence provides a positive objective. See “Relationships and Rapport” in Part 2 for more information about how people decide whether to move toward the positive or away from the negative.

Avoiding negative language is typically called positive tone. Emphasize what you and your reader can do rather than what can’t be done.

Not this:  We can't meet on Wednesday as you requested.
Say this:  Because I will be out of town on Wednesday, I would prefer to meet on Friday.

Not this:  The workshop on writing skills won't be too awful.
Say this:  The workshop on writing skills will be fun.

For more information about using positive tone, see “Using Positive Tone: Establishing the Frame,” in Understanding Context: Purpose and Audience.

• Not this: I am enclosing a brochure that will explain our policies. [Emphasizes what I, the writer, am doing.]
• But this: The enclosed brochure shows you the benefits of our policies. [Emphasizes what’s of value or benefit to the reader.]

• Not this: I am sending your order by FedEx today. [Emphasizes what I, the writer, am doing.]
• But this: You will receive your order by FedEx tomorrow. [Emphasizes what my actions will mean to the reader.]

In addition to helping you show how your message will influence your reader or listener, using the second person pronoun (also known as second person referential index) has another advantage of helping the reader see him- or herself in the situation being described. Be sure that when you use the pronoun you, that you actually are referring to your reader or to the person to whom you are speaking and don’t simply mean any person or people in general.

Because the use of the word you often leads to an embedded command, be careful to use it only when you want your reader or listener to associate into what you are saying. Note how the first part of the following example is essentially commanding you to have difficulty finding the right word and to develop writer’s block. The second part of the example uses the third person to avoid giving such a negative embedded command.

• Not this: When a person has writer’s block, it’s hard to find the right words. You know how it is. When you write, you sometimes have difficulty finding the right word, and before you know it, you can’t think of a thing to say.

• But this: When a person has writer’s block, he or she has a hard time finding the right word. When a person with writer’s block attempts to write, he or she may search for the right word and not find it, and pretty soon he or she won’t be able to think of a thing to say. (Note: In such sentences, consider shifting the point of view from third person singular to third person plural to avoid the awkwardness of the many references to he or she.)

Begin listening to the things others around you say using the word you as the referential index. What exactly are they telling you to do, think, feel, or believe?

Although the you-attitude is typically best served by using second person pronouns, when your reader (or listener) has made a mistake, the you-attitude may be better served by using the passive voice (see pp. 167-168 in The Delmar Reference Manual).

• Not this: You failed to complete p. 2 of the form.
  
• But this: We can begin processing your application as soon as both pages of the form have been completed.

• Not this: Your calculations are way off base here.
  
• But this: These figures need to be recalculated to ensure their accuracy.

When the reader has made a mistake, he or she can figure out for him- or herself who needs to complete the second page of the form, who needs to recalculate the figures, or who is responsible for the error without being told specifically. Using passive voice (or some other indirect method) shows more you-attitude than using active voice with you as the subject of the sentence. In such cases, active voice sounds accusatory and will make the reader feel defensive.

Never, however, use passive voice to subordinate your own mistakes. When you have made a mistake, apologize for it when necessary, and do your best to correct the mistake and to provide appropriate compensation when some form of compensation would create goodwill.

• Not this: A mistake was made in the processing of your order.

• But this: I did indeed send you the wrong camera, and I am sorry for the inconvenience it caused. The correct camera is on its way to you, and to show you that we value your patronage, I have also sent two rolls of film and a discount coupon worth 20 percent off on your next purchase.

Subordinate ideas your reader will find unpleasant, negative, or condescending by placing them in the middle of messages or paragraphs, by using passive voice, placing them in dependent (subordinate) clauses, and allocating minimum space to them.

• Not this: Although your grades are excellent, your score on the GMAT is too low for admission to the MBA program at this time. [Emphasizes the low score on the GMAT]

• But this: Although your score on the GMAT is too low for admission to the MBA program at this time, your grades are excellent, and you may reapply after you have retaken the GMAT. [Emphasizes excellent grades and the opportunity to reapply]

• Not this: I have received your letter about your toaster. [Emphasizes something the reader would already know—you would not be writing back if you had not received the letter.]

• But this: You’re right that your Warm&Toasty Toaster should toast both sides of the bread at the same time. [Subordinates the obvious to something about which you and the reader can both agree.]

• Not this: Winter is coming, so we should stock up on snow shovels now. [Emphasizes something the reader would already know.]

• But this: Because winter is coming, now would be a good time to stock up on snow shovels. [Subordinates the obvious to something new.]

• Not this: Our terms are 2/10, n/30. [Emphasizes the terms only.]
• Not this: Our terms are 2/10, n/30, which means you will save 2 percent by paying within 10 days, while the net amount is due in 30 days. [Emphasizes the obvious for most experienced business people.]

• But this: With our terms of 2/10, n/30, you can save $28.50 on this order alone by paying within 10 days. Or, if you prefer, you may take 30 days to pay the full amount. [Emphasizes the benefit of paying promptly while reminding the reader of the payment options.]

• Not this: Please find enclosed your refund check. [Emphasizes the fact of enclosure, which should be obvious to the reader.]

• But this: The enclosed refund check shows you that we are serious about customer service, Mr. Rafique. [Subordinates the fact of enclosure to a reader benefit.]

• Not this: Enclosed is a check for $1257. [Emphasizes the facts that the check is enclosed and its amount, things that should be obvious to the reader.]

• But this: The enclosed check for $1257 reimburses you for the cost of your automobile repairs. [Emphasizes the purpose of the check.]

If I say to you, Let’s go to San Francisco for the weekend, I am presupposing that you might want to take a trip with me, that we have a means of going to San Francisco, that a place named San Francisco exists, that we can get there, that a thing called a weekend exists, and that it would be possible for us to go to San Francisco for a weekend. In most cases, presuppositions are necessary and cause no specific communication problems.

Presuppositions can cause problems, however, when they indicate that the writer or speaker’s viewpoint is the only possible view and that those who don’t share it are mentally or morally deficient. Presuppositions may also contain embedded attacks. Consider the presuppositions in the following sentences and ask yourself what each of the sentences presupposes:

• Because women aren’t good at math, they rarely make good scientists.
• Because men lack nurturing skills, they are unfit to be single parents.
• Because students are inherently lazy, courses need to include a variety of built-in motivators.
• Everyone understands why you’re finding this concept so difficult.
• If you really wanted to learn business communication, you would be putting in a lot more study time.
• If you are a normal person, you will find at least some of these sentences insulting because of what they presuppose.

As you begin to pay closer attention to your use of language and start examining the language of others—especially that used in advertising—to see what is being presupposed, you will find your skill increasing. (You may have already noticed, for example, that the preceding sentence contains presuppositions designed to influence your behavior.)

Because presuppositions can influence behavior, use them carefully and to motivate your reader or listener to change beliefs or take actions that will be of mutual benefit.

• Not this: If you would like to place an order, simply call 800-555-1212. [Presupposes that the reader might prefer not to order.]

• But this: When you have decided what you would like to order, simply call 800-555-1212. [Presupposes that the reader will decide to order.]

While you should generally assume that your readers or listeners will respond positively to your suggestions if they help them achieve their own objectives, be careful to avoid being presumptuous:

• Not this: You simply must order one today! [Presupposes that the reader has no choice. (See Arbitrary Rules presented earlier in this section.)]

• But this: To guarantee delivery in time for Christmas, place your order by 10 December. [Provides a supporting reason for ordering soon.]

For more information about presuppositions, see the materials on Advanced Language Patterns.