In the business world, one wants to appear assertive and confident. Using “hedging” or conditional words undermines the reader’s confidence in the writer.
The most common words that undermine a writer are: seems, appears, maybe. To make your writing more assertive, delete these conditional words. Some examples appear below.
- Not assertive: It appears that the engineering department receives much of the blame.
- Assertive: The engineering department receives much of the blame.
- Not assertive: It seemed like everyone thought there was a different problem.
- Assertive: Everyone thought there was a different problem.
- Not assertive: The XYZ Corporation appears to be very successful.
- Assertive: The XYZ Corporation is very successful.
- Not assertive: The R&D team is pretty much off the hook.
- Assertive: The R&D team is off the hook. (This is terrible vocabulary, however.)
- Not assertive: The first recommendation I would make is to spell check your document.
- Assertive: First, I recommend you spell check your document.
- Not assertive: I think that maybe what the company should do is hire a consultant.
- Assertive: The company should hire a consultant.
Now that you have seen some examples, look for conditional words in your writing and eliminate as many as possible.
