10 COMMUNICATING GOODWILL AND DELIVERING BAD NEWS

So far, we’ve focused on very business-y business writing: proposals, marketing, guidelines, procedures and other common kinds of business documents. But there’s another kind of business writing: communicating goodwill and delivering bad news.

In this chapter you will learn the most effective ways to deliver even the most awful news, and how to let people down gently without hurting their feelings.

GOODWILL HUNTING

By goodwill we don’t mean the financial value of a business’s customers. We mean positive, co-operative, friendly feelings. That might be the feelings of the people you work with, or the feelings of clients or other important external people. It’s not something you can put a financial ...

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