In business writing, few things matter more than striking the appropriate tone. Otherwise, you risk losing or even offending your intended audience. Imagine that you’re writing to inquire about a job position, but you accidentally come across to your potential employer as demanding or ungrateful. Or that you’re making a recommendation to improve a process and come across as condescending. How would that affect your audience? How would that affect you?
Tone denotes the perceived attitude of the writer toward the subject and their intended audience. For instance, when you have a conversation with somebody, you might be able to tell how they feel about the topic of the conversation based on their facial expressions, intonation, and emphasis. But managing your tone in written communication can be difficult because you lack the nonverbal cues people exchange face-to-face.
Sentence Length
Sentence length dictates the overall rhythm of your writing, which affects the way your audience perceives your tone. Short sentences tend to promote a faster, more assertive pace, which makes them excellent for clarifying, declarative, and exclamatory sentiments:
EXAMPLE: The corporate retreat is next Tuesday, the 19th. Please wear comfortable clothing since some activities are outside. We’re looking forward to hosting you!
While longer sentences can get unwieldy, they have the capacity for more complex ideas and can also be used to soften the impact of shorter sentences:
EXAMPLE: This report has to be done by tonight. Since the pitch is next Monday, we cannot delay sending it to senior management any longer if we expect them to be prepared to hear our pitch. I know it will be difficult, but I’m confident in this team to get it done.
In this example, the longer sentence following the short, declarative sentence both explains the reasoning behind a decision and softens the demanding nature of the first sentence.
Word Choice
Word choice can have either a profound or subtle effect on the tone of your writing. When considering word choice, you should think about both the denotative and connotative definitions of the words you use. For instance, “acute,” “keen,” “shrewd,” and “cunning” all have relatively similar denotative, or literal, definitions, but they have very different connotative, or associative, definitions. A person would probably react well if you called them “keen” and poorly if you called them “cunning,” which is a drastic change in your effect on the audience. But word choice can also create more subtle shifts in tone. Consider the difference between these two statements:
EXAMPLE: You have received a scholarship.
EXAMPLE: You have earned a scholarship.
Both these sentences have the same basic meaning, but the difference in word choice alters the tone slightly. In the first sentence, the word “received” emphasizes the party who is giving the scholarship and ascribes no particular value to the recipient of the scholarship, whereas, in the second sentence, the recipient of the scholarship is being subtly commended for their work with the word “earned.”
Word Choice (Verbs)
When composing a message, you should also consider the rhetorical effect of the modal verbs you use. You add modal verbs, such as “can,” “should,” and “must,” to your primary verb when you want to express the plausibility, desirability, or urgency of the action: Ability: Can / Could
- You can modify the settings in Outlook later if you need to.
- I could edit out this section if you think it’s detrimental to the persuasiveness of the report.
Advice: Should
- You should have a file naming system to keep your computer organized.
- You should consider selecting an advisor who is more capable of meeting your needs.
Obligation: Must / Have to
- You must complete that write-up before you leave the office today.
- You have to submit your vacation request in advance.
Possibility: May / Might / Can / Could
- If this meeting runs over, we might not be able to make it to the conference on time.
- These chronic interruptions could shift the way we run future conferences.
Not only can modal verbs clarify your messages, they can also substantially shift the tone of your message. For instance, giving a client advice on their business plans by recommending they “should” do something is much different than telling a client that they “must” take your advice. Such fine differences are easy to miss in first drafts, but a client who has hired you to advise them might not react well to being told they “must” do something. Thus, use modal verbs that create a strong sense of obligation carefully; using them inappropriately may have severe consequences.
Sentence length and word choice are two key components of tone in writing and learning how to use them will help you communicate effectively. For more information on establishing and controlling tone in your writing, check out our articles on personal pronoun use and relational awareness in communication.
Recent Comments