Bad News Message

The bad news message that I have chosen to analyze, is a message of the salary reduction sent from a director of the human resources department to a staff from the division of language studies in a university. There is only one main idea in the whole letter; it is to inform the audience, who is the staff from the division of language studies, that there will be a deduction in her university salary.

The letter is written in a direct approach, which means from the letter the main idea can be straightly and clearly understood by the intended audience. The reason that direct approach is being used in this salary reduction letter is because among various kinds of bad news messages, salary reduction is not regarded as a very serious kind of bad news such as termination of contract etc. By looking at the heading of the letter Ў§Adjustment of University SalariesЎЁ, the word Ў§adjustmentЎЁ is a word with positive tone that effectively replaced the actual word Ў§deductionЎЁ. It is good to use a positive tone in the heading to avoid pointing out the bad news right at the beginning. The reason for salary adjustment is clearly stated in the first paragraph. And the main idea Ў§salary reductionЎЁ is basically focused in the second paragraph, which is the middle of the letter; it is a very good example of cushion effect which lessens audienceЎ¦s uneasiness. But even if it is a bad news, it is very clearly stated, it can help to make things clear and avoid arguments later on. Also, the writer uses the phrase Ў§seek your consentЎЁ in the first paragraph; it gives the reader a feeling of being respected.

This bad news message is indeed a very effective bad news message in terms of the language,