How to Share Good or Bad News by E-mail

This Element is an excerpt from T he Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing (ISBN: 9780137153152) by Natalie Canavor and Claire Meirowitz. Available in print and digital formats.

How to deliver good news more successfully--and deliver bad news in the most positive, productive, and useful way possible.

Everything you write, even a garden-variety e-mail, has a psychological impact. When you read a message, the physical cues--tone of voice, expression, body language--are missing. So, your innocent e-mail might send an entirely different message than what you meant. Here’s an example of how to think through your choices in crafting a bad-news message....