Speak up !!!!!

Deborah Tannen wrote “Indirectness Is Not Insecurity” (1994). Tannen defines the meaning of the old saying “it’s not what you say but how you say it”. In her essay Tannen argues that indirect communication in the work place can be just as effective as direct commands, which relaxes the working environment. Tannen recognizes that weather a boss, peer, or subordinate everyone responds differently. To demonstrate this she mentions two tapings of a conversation between a manger and their employees. I would definitely say her targeted audience would be those that hold a position of authority rather it be men or women.

                Tannen first example of this when she presents Mark a manager in a meeting attempted to give twenty five directives in which only four were softened by indirectness. The manager emphasized this to the employee when he states “because that’s who you mean that’s what you outta say”. Tannen then mentions that indirect request may at times be confused with just being a statement of need or a description of a situation. Then she presents us with the dialogue between another manager Kristin and the employee Charles. Kristin took the softer approach when speaking to Charles about his drafted report.  Tannen wanted to place emphasizes on the facts if Kristin would have been more direct in her approach weather than indirect Charles would have understand her view and what changes needed to be made to his report . She supports then when presenting line by line dialogue between Charles and Kristin.

For example Kristin in their conversation specifically suggest that Charles put in the conversion rate from local currency to dollars when she said “it might be useful – I’m not sure were going to show that.” Because Charles did not respond to her suggestion she took another approach to express herself more indirectly by asking whether the director would know the conversion rate if he presented the report differently.” (165) but he still didn’t adhere to the advice she then had to tell him what to do. Then she needed to add additional softener by adding reason or explanation for change.

The arrangement of this conversation was presented in this manner to simply prove, directness is not necessarily logical or effective. Neither was It convincing in terms of indirectness which most tend to believe manipulative or expression of insecurity. Indirectness can be just as powerful as a direct tone.