Perhaps you’ve heard the adage “No news is nice news.” In contrast, sometimes the news is bad. how are you going to communicate that bad news?

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Your last employer fired you. you are writing a financial report to stakeholders, & the company is losing money. You were required to perform specific duties & meet objectives, but you didn’t. you’ve a job to do, & it’s taking longer than expected. You failed a class in your undergraduate program. you’ve to miss work—again. You need to raise taxes because your budget is high. lots of patients are dying. Etcetera.

Now you’ve to put the bad news in writing. two benefit of writing is that you can craft your words carefully to say what needs to be said, honestly, but in a manner that reduces the negative impact. You can tell the truth, but tell it in a way that gives a better impression than the news deserves. This is called “spin,” or “spinning,” the news.

A. The purpose of Spin

1. Replace disparaging terminology & descriptors with positive actions.

Sometimes, nice news is made to seem like bad news, & this is also spin. Here, however, they are going to discuss 5 strategies for making bad news seem less bad. These are strategies for hiding an unpleasant truth while being honest.

Instead of writing, “I failed this class,” you could spin this & write “I am strategizing how to attain greater success next semester.” “Failed” is a negative term, but “strategizing” is a positive action.

You could write, “The company is losing money.” Or you could spin this & write, “The company is reassessing weak revenue streams.” “Losing” is a negative term, but “reassessing” is a positive action.

2. Focus on what was achieved, not on how you failed.

You could write, “We didn’t meet expectations.” Or you could spin this & write, “We met all expectations.” “Didn’t meet” is a sign of failure. “Nearly met” is a sign of progress.

3. Downplay & disparage criticisms & critics.

Instead of writing, “18% of all patients died from hospital staff errors,” you could spin this & write, “82% of all patients successfully recovered while at the hospital.”

Instead of writing, “Our previous client was upset that they didn’t meet deadlines,” you could spin this & write, “Our previous client had difficulty understanding the timeframe needed to produce high quality work.”

You could write, “Harvard economists argue against our budget plan.” Or you could spin this & write, “While some Harvard economists reject our budget plan, others with more direct experience at the national level support our proposals.”

4. Understate negative characteristics by stating “not + [extreme positive term].”

You could write, “He thought our writing was terrible.” Or you could spin this & write, “He was not satisfied with our writing.”

Instead of writing, “The professor was annoyed at me for arriving late so often,” you could spin this & write, “The professor was mostly, but not entirely, pleased with my attendance habits.”

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5. Use big, undefined conceptual terms to minimize the complexity of a situation, uncertainty about the future, or the potential for opposing philosophical perspectives.

Instead of writing, “Our employees are encouraged to keep quiet about any alleged company wrong-doings & face termination without warning if they discredit the company in public,” you could spin this & write, “We encourage employee loyalty.” [The specific meaning of “loyalty” is not defined, though the company’s unspoken policies certainly will produce loyalty—from fear.]

You could write, “We are going to need upper & middle class taxpayers to share an increasing percentage of the cost for health insurance for non-taxpayers.” Or you can spin this & write, “We are going to enact legislation to ensure that all citizens are healthy.” [“Healthy” is not defined, but because the focus is on “healthy,” readers may overlook the essential query: “How?”]

B. Ethical Considerations of Spin

I cannot talk about spin without talking about ethics. Spinning the news may raise significant ethical questions, depending on your point of view. On two hand, you are telling the truth about situations & facts. None of the spin statements above are false. If the reader doesn’t ask questions or think about what you write, that’s the reader’s fault, not yours.

On the other hand, you are intentionally attempting to make the reader have a false interpretation of the situation or facts. You need the reader to think more positively about a situation than they or they might otherwise. You aren’t deceiving the reader, but you are getting the reader to deceive himself.

You also need to think about the purpose you are trying to accomplish. Spin may or may not be appropriate. You might not need to spin the facts depending on who will receive the document, what the reader already knows, the impression you are trying to give, or your role.

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