Member-only story
Weed Out the Negativity
Learn to recognize this undertone in your life
“I find myself rewriting sentences to create a more positive tone.”
This was the feedback I received on a recent writing assignment.
I tried to recall what I said that could bring about such criticism. Nothing jumped out, so I scanned the marked-up document for examples.
Sure enough, my choice of words — terms like “although” and “not” — painted a negative picture for a client trying to widen its industry appeal and attract more jobseekers.
The time required to rewrite the statements in question was minimal, but a larger issue loomed.
Why hadn’t I recognized the negativity bleeding onto the page?
After weeks of cool-ish days and even cooler nights, the summer heat finally caught up to us, and we had to turn on the A/C.
We’d had a late warm snap in the fall and serviced the unit because it only blew warm air. The technician couldn’t find any leaks, so simply recharged the unit, expecting this fix to hold.
No such luck. Within minutes of turning it on, the upstairs temperature jumped several degrees. The vents were blowing heat, not cold air.
