How to Make Your Writing More Positive
Whether you are writing a blog post, an email to a customer or a report, it pays to make your writing more positive.
Positive writing is much more engaging and gives a much better all-round feeling for the reader.
What is Negative Writing?
Negative writing is when the language that is used in writing is viewed as negative. We use negative words over positive.
Examples of negative words we could use are:
- No
- Not
- Won’t
- Can’t
- Unable to
We also may use negative statements such as:
- Fell short
- Didn’t meet expectations
- Nothing we can do
Not commital words can also be seen to be negative. Words and statements such as:
- Possibly
- Could
- Maybe
- Might
- Try
How Do We Make Writing More Positive
The idea is to consider the structure of your writing and aim to make things more positive. Here are some examples:
Negative – The system probably won’t be up and running until next Tuesday
Positive – The system will be up and running by next Tuesday.
Negative – I’m sorry that the website fell short of your expectations.
Positive – I appreciate the suggestions you sent about ways to improve the website.
Negative – We are unable to reserve advertising space until 15th September.
Positive – We can reserve advertising space from 15th September.
Use a positive, decisive version of verbs: e.g. use ‘ask’ not ‘enquire’; ‘think’ rather than ‘believe’; ‘know’ rather than ‘feel’.
Here are some other words pack a positive punch:
- Benefit
- Bonus
- Excellent
- Delighted
- Honest
- Guarantee
- Immediately
- Of course
- Yes
- Thank you
These have negative connotations:
- Regret
- Problem
- Impossible
- Cannot
- Complaint
- Delay
- Mistake
- Sorry
- Disappoint
- Difficulty
When you are writing content, take some time to read back over what you have written and consider if there are ways to make what you have written more positive.
Our Business Writing Skills course provides lots of tips and ideas on how to make your writing more positive and engaging.