I have been involved in enough forum flame wars and have seen enought blog flame wars to be pretty much sick and tired of them. I also understand (as a wise man millenia ago point out) there is nothing new under the sun. So when I cam across some words of wisdom concerning how to best repond to controversy, I figured that I would reprint the advice. I would charge for it just to increase its worth to you, but as it’s free elsewhere and I’m not a consultant, here is an excerpt of Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter Writing by Charles Dodgson AKA Lewis Carrol for free:

A few more Rules may fitly be given here, for correspondence that has unfortunately become controversial.One is, don’t repeat yourself. When once you have said your say, fully and clearly, on a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that subject: to repeat your arguments, all over again, will simply lead to his doing the same; and so you will go on, like a Circulating Decimal. Did you ever know a Circulating Decimal come to an end?

Another Rule is, when you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend, however necessary you may have felt it to so express yourself, put it aside till the next day. Then read it over again, and fancy it addressed to yourself. This will often lead to your writing it all over again, taking out a lot of the vinegar and pepper, and putting in honey instead, and thus making a much more palatable dish of it! If, when you have done your best to write inoffensively, you still feel that it will probably lead to further controversy, keep a copy of it. There is very little use, months afterwards, in pleading “I am almost sure I never expressed myself as you say: to the best of my recollection I said so-and-so”. Far better to be able to write “I did not express myself so: these are the words I used”.

My fifth Rule is, if your friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed, or make your reply distinctly less severe: and if he makes a friendly remark, tending towards “making up” the little difference that has arisen between you, let your reply be distinctly more friendly. If, in picking a quarrel, each party declined to go more than three-eighths of the way, and if, in making friends, each was ready to go five-eighths of the way–why, there would be more reconciliations than quarrels! Which is like the Irishman’s remonstrance to his gad-about daughter — “Shure, you’re always goin’ out! You go out three times, for wanst that you come in!”

My sixth Rule (and my last remark about controversial correspondence) is, don’t try to have the last word! How many a controversy would be nipped in the bud, if each was anxious to let the other have the last word! Never mind how telling a rejoinder you leave unuttered: never mind your friend’s supposing that you are silent from lack of anything to say: let the thing drop, as soon as it is possible without discourtesy: remember “speech is silvern, but silence is golden”! (N.B.–If you are a gentleman, and your friend is a lady, this Rule is superfluous: you won’t get the last word!)

My seventh Rule is, if it should ever occur to you to write, jestingly, in dispraise of your friend, be sure you exaggerate enough to make the jesting obvious: a word spoken in jest, but taken as earnest, may lead to very serious consequences. I have known it to lead to the breaking-off of a friendship. Suppose, for instance, you wish to remind your friend of a sovereign you have lent him, which he has forgotten to repay–you might quite mean the words “I mention it, as you seem to have a conveniently bad memory for debts”, in jest; yet there would be nothing to wonder at if he took offence at that way of putting it. But, suppose you wrote “Long observation of your career, as a pickpocket and a burglar, has convinced me that my one lingering hope, for recovering that sovereign I lent you, is to say ‘Pay up, or I’ll summons yer!'” he would indeed be a matter-of-fact friend if he took that as seriously meant!

That last piece of advice is the least obvious and reminds me of how often after a controversy the person who lit the fuse will claim “I was just making a joke”. Just like all other communication, if it isn’t clear to the audience, the mistake is yours, not theirs.

Via the Evangelical Outpost

Tags: advice, Lewis Carol