Management Consulting and Teaching: Lessons Learned Teaching Professionals To Control Tone in Writing
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1080569909340626
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  peer-reviewed

Jameson, Daphne A.
Business Communication Quarterly
2009

Abstract:

In working with business executives, engineers, and government officials to improve their writing, I learned that it is much easier to teach clarity than tone. To bolster lessons on tone, I now draw on theory and research from interpersonal communication and social psychology. In the following discussion, I describe one such approach: applying the concept of defensiveness to business and technical writing.