Mark Twain on adjectives:
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As to the Adjective: When in doubt, strike it out. Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894
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God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by. Letter to Orion Clemens, 1878
Negotiation is one of the most important skills that a real estate investor needs to master. And in many cases, written communication will be a key part of a negotiation. You might have to send a letter to the city about a zoning proposal. You might be communicating via email with the seller of a property. Or you may need to send a letter to your homeowners’ association opposing a proposed expenditure.
Write your letter. Then grab your red pen and consider all of the adjectives. Can a sentence stand on its own without a particular adjective? Then line it out. If you can’t remove an adjective from a sentence without significantly changing its meaning then consider rewriting the sentence.
Do this and you’ll be amazed: you’ll end up with a cleaner, less emotional, more fact-based letter – and one that is likely to be more persuasive.
Zapping all those snappy adjectives can be painful. You’ll be thinking to yourself: but the work that the contractor did was “shoddy”. Fair enough. You might be perfectly justified in using the word "shoddy" in your communication, but remember: the objective is not to be right, it's to influence the other guy's behavior. It can be much more powerful to let the facts speak for themselves.
Instead of complaining that a contractor’s work was “shoddy” simply highlight the facts: that a) the pier-and-beam foundation leveling that they performed did not meet established tolerances, b) there is an additional 1 inch deflection in the level of the middle room since they did the job last month, and c) three of the closet doors are already starting to stick.
Let the facts speak for themselves and you have a more powerful communication. Adjectives hop off the page and poke the reader in the eye. They’re personal. The contracter is likely to perceive the word “shoddy” as a personal attack on his character, whereas a cool recital of the facts focuses attention of the deficiency of the work performed.
Disclaimer: this isn’t a silver bullet. People behave all sorts of ways when they’re undergoing the stress of trying to resolve a conflict. But in my experience, capturing points in writing using a fact based approach helps to clearly defined the problem and helps to align the parties on finding a solution.
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