[MUSIC] Hello and welcome to English for Management and Leadership. In this video, we'll review making direct and indirect requests, how and when to use the direct and indirect approach, and how to write a summary. Wow, you've covered a lot. For this review, you'll be given a hypothetical situation and a question to answer that will help you check your knowledge. Then you'll be asked to communicate that situation to your boss using the most effective approach. The hypothetical question you're going to answer is complicated, so I will ask you in parts. Here's part one, and it's the scenario. You are a manager for a small business in the service industry. Even though you normally summarize the business activities in a status report every two weeks, your boss requested that you give him a status report one week early. Look at this picture of your boss. Look at that smile. Doesn't he seem like a nice person? A nice person to work for? Who wants to keep a pleasant mood at work? How would this nice person request that you write the status report one week early? Would he give you an order or would he be more polite? It might be useful to review what we know about making direct and indirect requests. Direct requests often use the imperative mood and can be annoying. Remember Jenny's bossy sister? If your boss makes direct requests, he would say something like complete it today. For the indirect request, he would show concern for your feelings. He'd use words such as please and modals such as would or could. He might say something like would you mind completing the report early or would you like to complete the report early? So based on this information, what language do you think the manager chose in his request? Direct or indirect? I think he wanted to soften the message, because he knew that you were very busy, and completing the summary report one week early would cause extra work for you. Do you agree with me? Good job. Can you believe Jenny disagreed with me? Jenny said that she thinks the boss used direct language because he only looks nice. Ever since he got his promotion, he's been really bossy, like her bossy sister, and he doesn't care how much he annoys everyone. Do you agree with Jenny? If you agree with Jenny, you'd be right, also. The key takeaway here is that deciding whether to make a request using direct or indirect language depends on the mood, the audience, and the situation. Are you ready for the second part of this hypothetical situation and question? It requires you to synthesize what you've learned about writing summaries and using the direct or indirect approach. Here's what happens next. Normally, you handle doing extra work but this time you're nervous. You're nervous about this status report, because although your boss is nice, you feel he's going to be really upset about the mistake you made. You forgot to fill a large order for your biggest client. Although it was an error, the client wasn't angry. Actually the client seemed happy with the way things turned out. Now, here's the question. In your summary to your boss, should you use the direct or indirect approach? To help us, let's review what we know about these two approaches and what we know about summaries. First, the direct approach. When we have neutral or good news, we say it directly following this pattern. Start with the news, add details or explanation, conclude with a summary statement. Now, let's talk about the indirect approach. When you have news that is unwanted or may be met with resistance or you aren't really sure how the message will be received, then we say it indirectly. We follow this pattern. Start with a buffer, give the reasons, express the news, then redirect attention. Let's review summaries. Summaries describe the most important ideas. The only details that are included are the ones that are needed to understand the information. You don't give your opinion in a summary. Remember Jenny's Bakery example? In a summary, you wouldn't say which donuts are the most delicious, for example. Okay. Let's go back to our hypothetical question. In the summary to your boss, should you use the direct or indirect approach? Should you say something like I did? Here's my example. The Walmart order was lost in the system and not filled on time. A computer glitch prevented the open order from being seen. The computer glitch and the increased number of open orders caused the Walmart order to be neglected. Walmart indicated that the error was not a problem for their schedule and was satisfied with an explanation of how it wouldn't happen again in the future. Although the error caused the order to be filled late, the situation has been mitigated, and all future orders should be filled on time. Would you say that the example summary I just gave you was in the direct approach format? Then you understand. Good job. First, I stated the news. The Walmart order was lost in the system and not filled on time. Then I gave an explanation and details. And then I ended with a summary statement, basically a summary of my summary. The direct approach is typical for business summaries or status reports. Notice that I didn't share my opinion. I just shared the most important points. You'll be using the direct approach later in the course when we cover status reports. Clearly, you understand that the direct approach is typical for business summaries. Let's check your understanding of the indirect approach. Let's imagine that your boss didn't request the status report, but you wanted to inform him of the bad news before he read it in the summary. You write and send an email, informing him of the situation. Would you start with a buffer? Yes, you would, wouldn't you? You might write in the body of your email, here's the buffer, your concern about your order system proved to be valid this week. However, I didn't turn, however, it didn't turn out as bad as you expected. Now, here's the reason. The repeat customer orders were not labeled as open, so he worked on filling only the open orders. Here's the bad news. This means that Walmart's order was not filled on time. And here's the redirect. Walmart was satisfied with this explanation and, in fact, indicated that the delay worked in their favor. The problem with the computer system has been mitigated and should not happen again in the future. Now that we've reviewed summaries in the direct and indirect approach, you are going to get the chance to demonstrate your knowledge. You will be asked to write an email containing a summary. You will choose the appropriate pattern and approach for that situation. And you know what? I think you're ready. Thank you for your hard work in Module 1 of English for Management and Leadership. >> And