For example, you can easily change “I forgot” to “I’ll set a reminder.” Likewise, “criticism” is easier to take when it’s “feedback.” For creating a positive spin on language, it’s often best to consider what action could make a situation better. There are some common phrases that have a negative connotation to them. So while it’s good to have a list of positives to choose from, it only gets us halfway there. The goal, however, is to change negative words and phrases into something more positive. There are repositories of positive words across the Internet, but probably none so complete as this one. Once you’ve done the work to find the negative words and phrases in your communication, it’s time to make them positive. The method that works best for me is to take my last 100 emails, run them through analysis, and then find the negative terms that I use most often. But our own bias toward ourselves makes it a harder task to self-police.įortunately for us, there are sentiment analysis tools available, many of which are free or at least have a free trial. When we’re reading words that others have written, it’s easy to spot negative terms. To correct our mistakes, we first need to be aware of them. The problem that most of us have is that we don’t see the sentiment of our own writing as being negative. Walking the line between kind and firm, it’s not uncommon to see a situation where a message comes off harshly, even if we did not intend that way. If you want a positive response, then you are best served by sending out a positive message. The adage of “you reap what you sow” comes into play here. Let’s correct the work that you’ve done so we can make sure we’re making progress toward a signed contract. It is best to double check everything before we send out a communication. ![]() ![]() We want to make sure that we’re providing valuable feedback to our customers. One mistake could mean that we don’t land the contract. Unfortunately, there is little value in the feedback that you offered. There were errors in the work that you turned in. ![]() Let me give you an example of a paragraph that I saw recently, and then I’ll follow it with a better version of the same message. We know that negative words and phrases can sap our energy and make us feel bad, but what do we do when we want to be clear? How can we make sure that we’re getting our point across without beating someone up over it? There’s a lot of talk about being positive. Take a moment to think about this: when writing, how often do you use negative words or phrases? Avoiding negative words and phrases is a challenge, but knowledge activation tools like TextExpander make it easier. We’re going to start this post with a thought exercise.
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