Last fall, I took a class called “Professional Communication
Fundamentals.” We had an entire unit on business letter writing, and
interestingly, the salutation and securing of goodwill were two major
components of these letters.
In fact, my professor told the class that if we include the
appropriate greeting and manage to build goodwill throughout the letter, our
chances of “getting what we want” (or, effectively persuading) increase
significantly. Building goodwill in a business letter, we learned, involves
carefully arranging information—the specific facts or details—based on their
content and the overall message the writer wants to convey. What we learned in
class closely echoes what Anonymous wrote in Principles of Letter Writing:
“The Securing of Goodwill in a letter is a certain fit
ordering of words effectively influencing the mind of the recipient.” (502, VI)
For example, how do you build goodwill in a negative
message? If you must tell an employee her position will be “phased out” in
January, you should do so tactfully. This requires arranging the letter so the
negative information appears in the middle of the paragraph.
Business cat has no regard for building goodwill.
Imagine you were the one receiving this letter. Would you
want it to begin, “Dear Ms. Byrnes, effective January 1, your position will be
phased out.” Um, no.
BUT--If the letter began, “Dear Ms. Byrnes, I want to
encourage you and thank you for your hard work and dedication at The Writing
Center…” then, got to the bad news…it would still sting, for sure, but the
writer has attempted to build goodwill. Hopefully, then, I will not run around
town slandering my former employer.
I can definitely see The Principles of Letter writing as a
precursor to my business communication textbook. Though the style and length of
our salutations have evolved, the emphasis on writing an appropriate greeting
and building goodwill remains.
I write a lot of letters and emails in my job, and many of them are written with the intent of conveying bad news. I not previously given a lot of thought to the way that I lay out these "bad news" letters verses how I format other communications. I do tend to take a step back and start with something positive before diving into the bad news. As I am more of a cut-to-the-chase kind of person, I have always thought I was just beating-around-the-bush before getting to the real message and had internally chided myself for lacking the gumption to just say what needed to be said. Now I will be able to put a positive spin on the way I think of this tendancy and accept that I am building goodwill.
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