Tone is Not Just the Tone of Your Voice
Why is it difficult to understand that you need to be nice to people? If you’re an adult, it seems that you would have figured out by now that being nice will get you so much farther in life than being a jerk! Didn’t your mama teach you that when you were little?
I get so disgusted with my adult students who think they don’t have to be nice to their teacher. Good grief, Charlie Brown, he or she is going to give you your grade! Be nice!!
OK, so enough venting. But seriously, if you are in an online classroom, your job is to learn to communicate effectively via the messages you post to your classmates and your instructor. If you’re at work, your job is to effectively communicate with your co-workers or your boss. It’s the same concept.
I am not advocating that you should be nicer to your teacher than your classmates or nicer to your boss than your co-workers. I am advocating that you should be nice to everyone with whom you communicate!
Tone is not just “tone of voice.” Your tone comes through in everything you write just as it does when you speak. The same thought process occurs whether you are speaking or writing; however, the great advantage to writing is that you have time to re-read your message, think about how it sounds and make changes before you send it.
Communication is such an important part of our lives. I used to try to convince my high school students that learning to write effectively is one of the most important tools for success in the future. Many of them didn’t believe it then but have told me since how true it is. Maybe teaching adults online is my second chance to do a little convincing about how important effective communication really is. I think I’ll write more about this tomorrow.
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Comments
Comment from Sandy
Time: January 28, 2010, 1:00 pm
Hi Maria,
That’s the funny thing about tone. Unless you’re careful, what you really mean can easily be misinterpreted by the reader. So it does make sense to proofread. I even suggest to my students that they read sensitive emails aloud – this can often help you detect a statement that could sound harsher than you intended.
That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing it!
Sandy Davis is a long-time educator who holds a Masters Degree in Education and currently teaches Online Communication Courses on the college level.
Comment from Maria A. Frey
Time: January 28, 2010, 12:49 pm
True story:
I was writing an email to a new co-worker that explained one of our company processes. There were a number of steps and I wanted to make sure to outline it as best as possible so that it was easy to understand and not be overwhelming.
Later that day my supervisor came to me saying that the new employee had complained about the tone of my email. I was being careful about what I typed, but made the mistake of saying things like “you will need to…” instead of using contractions like “you’ll”.
According to my supervisor, the tone of my email (due to my non-use of contractions) came across as bossy.
Ever since then, I tend to re-read every email I send and make sure it’s casual and doesn’t come across harsh.
Who would’ve thought?!