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Making positive and negative comments

Imagine that you are a manager in a company and a member of your team asks you to look at something sheâ€™s prepared. Youâ€™ll probably see some things that you like and some things that you donâ€™t like â€“ but whatâ€™s the best way to discuss these points? How can you show your team-member that you like some things but not others?

Don't forget to practise what you've learned with the activity further down this page.

Listen - realmedia

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Moving from positive to negative, or from negative to positive
But actually,	it is a little small. I do quite like the colours.
On the other hand,
Then again,

Positive signals

Negative signals

On the positive side...
One of the strengths of this is...
What I like about this is...

... is one of the strengths.
... is really great.
... is a big plus.

On the negative side...
Perhaps a weakness of this is that...
This is one of the things I'm not sure of, because...

...is one of the weaknesses.
...is something you might want to look at again.

Using stress to add balance

Make uncontracted statements:
Then again, it is quite small.

Use do:
But actually, I do like the colours.

Giving qualified praise
For	a first project, I think you've done a great job here.
In terms of

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

Quiz
For each question choose the best answer.

Flash not working? You can download a pdf version of the quiz at the bottom of the page.