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 Consideration,
or in another term, the you¨Cattitude, becomes more and more important
in business writing. Good business writing can and should promote
good relations between you and your reader. This means you should
share your reader¡¯s point of view and keep your reader¡¯s needs in
mind. If you were asking a customer who had requested a refund to
return a sales slip, the following sentence would not build good will.
¡°We require that you sign and return the sales slip before we can
process a refund.¡± The emphasis here is that the writer and the company
need to process a refund but the reader¡¯s need is not mentioned. The
revised sentence concerns more about the reader¡¯s benefit-to receive
a quick refund: ¡°So you can receive your refund quickly, please sign
and return the sales slip. ¡± For another example, if you write ¡°Please
accept out apologies for the delay ¡±, it is perfectly polite. But
you may let your reader know what you care by saying ¡°We hope you
have not been seriously inconvenienced by the delay.¡±
Effective business writing should
always be courteous. The success of your business depends largely
on how you can treat people. If you treat them politely, they will
like to do more business with you. They are willing to read a sentence
like ¡°Thank you for your recent order¡± instead of a cold statement
¡°We have received your order.¡± In this way, courtesy increases the
effect of business writing.
In
short, the above-mentioned principles are ways to ensure good business
writing so as to convey information and to influence the readers.
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