{"id":303,"date":"2022-04-26T16:36:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T20:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=303"},"modified":"2022-08-22T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T17:30:28","slug":"8-4-direct-approach-bad-news-messages","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/chapter\/8-4-direct-approach-bad-news-messages\/","title":{"raw":"8.4 Direct Approach Bad-news Messages","rendered":"8.4 Direct Approach Bad-news Messages"},"content":{"raw":"We\u2019ve so far looked at expressing bad news using the indirect approach, but is it ever right to deliver bad news using the direct approach? Are there occasions where you can or should be upfront about the bad news? In the following situations, yes, it\u2019s certainly appropriate to deliver bad news by getting right to the point:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>When the bad news isn\u2019t <em>that<\/em> bad:<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>In the case of small price or rate increases, customers won\u2019t be devastated by having to pay more. Indeed, inflation makes such increases an expected fact of life.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>If your job involves routinely delivering criticism because you\u2019re a Quality Assurance specialist, the people who are used to receiving recommendations to improve their work will appreciate the direct approach. Some organizations even require direct-approach communications for bad news as a policy because it is more time-efficient.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>When you know that the recipient prefers or requires the direct approach:<\/strong> Though the indirect approach is intended as a nice way to deliver bad news, some people would rather you be blunt. \u201cGive it to me straight, doc. I\u2019m a grown-up. I can take it,\u201d they might say. Since a message must always be tailored to the audience, getting permission for taking the direct approach is your cue to follow through with exactly that. Not doing so will arouse the angry response you would have expected otherwise.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>When you\u2019re short on time or space:<\/strong> One of the hallmarks of the indirect approach is that it takes more words than a direct-approach message. If time is limited or you\u2019re constrained in how much space you have to write, taking the direct approach is justifiable.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>When the indirect approach hasn\u2019t worked:<\/strong> If this is the third time you\u2019ve had to tell a client to pay their invoice and the first two were nicely-worded indirect messages that the recipient ignored, it is time to issue a stern warning of the consequences of not paying. You may need to threaten legal action or say you\u2019ll refer the account to a collection agency, and you may need to put it in bold so that you\u2019re sure the reader won\u2019t miss it.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>When the reader may miss the bad news:<\/strong> You may determine from profiling your audience and their literacy level that they might not understand the indirect-approach bad news. If your reader doesn\u2019t have a strong command of English vocabulary and misses words here and there, they may not pick up on the buried bad news past the mid-point of a challenging message.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn the above situations, structure your message following the three-part organization illustrated in Activity 8.3:\r\n<h3>[h5p id=\"8\"]<\/h3>\r\n<sup>Activity 8.3 | Direct Bad News Structure<\/sup>\r\n\r\nOf course, clarity and brevity in such messages are vital to maintaining friendly relations with your audiences (Guffey et al., 2016, p. 190).","rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve so far looked at expressing bad news using the indirect approach, but is it ever right to deliver bad news using the direct approach? Are there occasions where you can or should be upfront about the bad news? In the following situations, yes, it\u2019s certainly appropriate to deliver bad news by getting right to the point:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When the bad news isn\u2019t <em>that<\/em> bad:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In the case of small price or rate increases, customers won\u2019t be devastated by having to pay more. Indeed, inflation makes such increases an expected fact of life.<\/li>\n<li>If your job involves routinely delivering criticism because you\u2019re a Quality Assurance specialist, the people who are used to receiving recommendations to improve their work will appreciate the direct approach. Some organizations even require direct-approach communications for bad news as a policy because it is more time-efficient.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>When you know that the recipient prefers or requires the direct approach:<\/strong> Though the indirect approach is intended as a nice way to deliver bad news, some people would rather you be blunt. \u201cGive it to me straight, doc. I\u2019m a grown-up. I can take it,\u201d they might say. Since a message must always be tailored to the audience, getting permission for taking the direct approach is your cue to follow through with exactly that. Not doing so will arouse the angry response you would have expected otherwise.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When you\u2019re short on time or space:<\/strong> One of the hallmarks of the indirect approach is that it takes more words than a direct-approach message. If time is limited or you\u2019re constrained in how much space you have to write, taking the direct approach is justifiable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When the indirect approach hasn\u2019t worked:<\/strong> If this is the third time you\u2019ve had to tell a client to pay their invoice and the first two were nicely-worded indirect messages that the recipient ignored, it is time to issue a stern warning of the consequences of not paying. You may need to threaten legal action or say you\u2019ll refer the account to a collection agency, and you may need to put it in bold so that you\u2019re sure the reader won\u2019t miss it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When the reader may miss the bad news:<\/strong> You may determine from profiling your audience and their literacy level that they might not understand the indirect-approach bad news. If your reader doesn\u2019t have a strong command of English vocabulary and misses words here and there, they may not pick up on the buried bad news past the mid-point of a challenging message.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the above situations, structure your message following the three-part organization illustrated in Activity 8.3:<\/p>\n<h3>\n<div id=\"h5p-8\">\n<div class=\"h5p-iframe-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"h5p-iframe-8\" class=\"h5p-iframe\" data-content-id=\"8\" style=\"height:1px\" src=\"about:blank\" frameBorder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"Ch 8- Direct Organization\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/h3>\n<p><sup>Activity 8.3 | Direct Bad News Structure<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Of course, clarity and brevity in such messages are vital to maintaining friendly relations with your audiences (Guffey et al., 2016, p. 190).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-303","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":295,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1212,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/303\/revisions\/1212"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/295"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/303\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}