When nice is bad

Words can give you a bad image.
If you spent a few hours making biscuits, do you want to hear:

• These biscuits are nice. 🍪
  

or

• these biscuits are delicious! 🍪 🍪

Words like:

💋 delicious
😋 scrumptious
😍 moreish

give impact and communicate a positive image. If you are asked for your thoughts, don’t say:

❌ I was thinking about…
❌ In my opinion…

… because these weaken your opinion. Instead, give your thoughts and be clear:

💪🏻 I think ..
👍🏽 My opinion is …

Using emotive words can paint a more vivid and precise picture. Words like:

• love
• loathe
• prefer
• confidential
• controversial

Let’s take a bland example:

• I like what you said about the project. I could see people liked what you said.It was nice.

We can be improve by changing the bland words:

• I loved what you said about the project. I could see people were moved by what you said. It was wonderful.

If you want your audience to be more receptive to eating a healthy diet which would be more effective?

1. Your current diet is clearly unhealthy. Your results show you have high cholesterol, excess weight and poor muscle definition. So, you need to eat the following foods.
2. Everyone wants to be healthy. Everyone loves to feel good but not everyone has time to cook. You’re open-minded and willing to try different things. My first easy suggestion to is make a list of all the vegetables, fruit and food you like. I have a list here of those foods which I advise you to eat and would like to see how many on your list match this one.

The second example leaves the listener with a positive impression in their mind; they do want to be healthy but not sure how. Slowly, you start to guide them through the Be healthy message you’re talking about.


Learn more about how to express yourself with authority, click here:

• Hedging and the art of cautious language
• The mystery of the absurd letter or effective writing skills

For a range of online courses, click here.

Discover our range of online courses designed to help you improve your written English. [link]

For a better perspective on written and spoken English, subscribe to The Argot Review.