This paper focuses on Bad News Messages in Business communication.
This paper focuses on Bad News Messages in Business communication.
In business writing, a bad-news message is a letter, memo, or email that conveys negative or unpleasant information—information that is likely to disappoint, upset, or even anger a reader. It is also called an indirect message or a negative message.
Bad-news messages include rejections (in response to job applications, promotion requests, and the like), negative evaluations, and announcements of policy changes that don’t benefit the reader.
A bad-news message conventionally begins with a neutral or positive buffer statement before introducing the negative or unpleasant information. This approach is called the indirect plan.
“It is much, much worse to receive bad news through the written word than by somebody simply telling you, and I’m sure you understand why. When somebody simply tells you bad news, you hear it once, and that’s the end of it. But when bad news is written down, whether in a letter or a newspaper or on your arm in felt tip pen, each time you read it, you feel as if you are receiving the bad news again and again.” (Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid. HarperCollins, 2007)
On behalf of the members of the Research & Scholarship Committee, thank you for submitting an application for this year’s Research & Scholarship grants competition.
Although you did not receive a grant this year, I trust that you will continue to pursue both internal and external funding opportunities.
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