Tuesday July 17, 2012
I appreciate you! (Really I do ...)
By ALISTAIR KING
HAVE you ever written “Your kind assistance is highly appreciated”? Were you requesting help or acknowledging help already given? This sentence is thanking the reader for his/her assistance, not requesting it.
If you are requesting assistance, then it is appropriate to use the conditional form “would be”, otherwise the statement could appear presumptuous. Thus, the form would be “Your assistance would be highly appreciated”. Drop the “kind”; there is no need to kow tow. Courtesy does not equate with obsequiousness.
However, note that these two statements are in the Passive Voice. The Passive Voice is an extremely important grammatical device, especially where identities are best not to be mentioned or to be placed out of focus. In letters, the Active Voice is preferred because the identities of both writer and reader are significant. Thus, a more appropriate rendering is the Active Voice “We would highly appreciate your assistance”. At a later date, this column will explain the grammatical and stylistic differences between the Active and Passive Voices.
Let us consider this beautiful word “appreciate”. There is a large number of definitions for this word in different dictionaries. The one I like most is “recognise the full worth of”. So, when I (sincerely) tell you that I appreciate you, that is a tremendous statement to make!
A common sentence is: “We would appreciate if you could attend to this matter at your earliest possible convenience”; a more common Malaysian version is “We would appreciate it, if you could attend to this matter at your earliest possible convenience”. It is best not to use the cumbersome “at your earliest possible convenience” as it sounds tentative and does not convey the urgency of the situation.
Speaking of being tentative, we use the conditional words would, could, should, might when we do not want to sound direct. When seeking a raise in salary, you may well say to your boss. “I wonder if I could ask you whether you might consider ...?” It could well happen that you might not get to the point as quickly as you should! This is an example of circumlocution, mentioned in this column on June 26.
Directness and politeness are not opposites. In order to improve the “appreciate” sentence, remove one of the conditionals. The first (“would”) cannot be removed, but the second (“could”) can be removed. First, the “if” has to go and this means that a second verb construction can be avoided and replaced with a noun phrase. The result is: “We would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter”. This is courteous and considerate, yet direct. Other examples are: “We would appreciate your immediate action”; “We would appreciate your full settlement of this sum.”
> Dr Alistair King has over 25 years experience in education and training for multinational corporations and government departments in several European, African and Asian countries.
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