In Deborah Tannen's excerpt "Indirectness Is Not Insecurity," she analyzes the different ways a man and woman requests for thing to be completed. Tannen explores the indirect and direct ways of doing things and explains the reasons for trying an indirect approach.
Tannen introduces her excerpt by explaining the two ways to request something from employees. Tannen then informs the reader that she has taped two managers named Mark and Kristin. Mark made the direct approach and requested 25 things in five hours of meetings. Kristin on the other hand, took the indirect approach. Kristin's language was choppy, but softened with laughter and "yeahs". The reason Kristin's speech was choppy is because she would stray away from what Mark thinks "...you oughtta say," and used what he thinks "...will confuse people," (166). Charles, the subordinate Kristin was speaking with, was missing the point the whole time. After about twelve lines of dialogue, he finally says "Okay." (167).
I agree with what Mark says. I'm a very direct person and I get to the point. It is a way of staying on track and a way of keeping everyone on the same page. It also saves time. Tannen says that some people might find Mark's directness abrasive, but business is very straightforward and if you can't follow direct requests, then the job isn't right for you. It saves time being straightforward also. Kristin took about three minutes convincing Charles that putting the U.S. value of the local currency in parenthesis is neccessary. Mark could have requested this directly in a minute and gotten his point across efficiently without confusion. I agree with the suggestion that indirect requests can irritate some people. It definitely irritates me. I like understanding. If it takes you four sentences for me to understand what you might be suggesting, your'e wasting time.
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