The English Center Diplomatic English for Business
The English Center Diplomatic English for Business gives ten ways to soften what you say at work: modal verbs, minimizing adjectives, saying sorry, owning an opinion, please and thank you, conjunctions, compliments, acknowledgment phrases, signaling bad news, and matching the level of politeness to the person. Each tip comes with examples of the same sentence said directly and said diplomatically.
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How It Helps Your Business English
The article opens on the distance between direct speech and Anglo-Saxon indirectness, then works through ten tips, each under a heading of its own: modal verbs, minimizing adjectives, apologies, owning an opinion, please and thank you, conjunctions, compliments, acknowledgment phrases, signaling bad news, and adapting the level of politeness. A table of contents sits at the top.
You can read the ten tips in order or go straight to the one that matches what you have been told about your English, since each stands on its own. Compare the direct sentence with the diplomatic one in each tip and say both aloud to hear what changes. Keep two or three of the phrases ready for your next meeting, and read the tip on bad news before you have to deliver any.
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