I'm kind of concerned about the impact adding this feature might have on the scope of the project. I think if we try to do this now we won't have time to do it right, and we might introduce bugs or not get the user interface right. We should probably put it off until the next release.
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I'm concerned about the impact adding this feature will have on the scope of the project. If we try to do this now we won't have time to do it right, and we might introduce bugs or not get the user interface right. We should put it off until the next release.
Don't hedge what you're saying. Get rid of the words that weaken your argument. They accomplish nothing. If you're wrong, being tentative about it doesn't make you less wrong. If you're right, your apparent lack of confidence in your own point is contagious.
Note that I left the one legitimate "might" in the second version. It isn't a sure thing that pushing the new feature in now will introduce bugs; that's just a risk I'm mentioning.
(Second note: it isn't a potential risk, it's an actual one. I had a weakening word in there first time I wrote this, but I caught it when I was proofreading this.)
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I sometimes *add* weakening words on editing, actually. The point is face-saving -- not for me, but for anyone else in the discussion who'd argued for something different. I am actually more likely to do this, the more sure I am that I'm right. My sense is that I default to coming across as opinionated, and so I do what I can to moderate this in contexts where it matters, like work.
I suspect there is a gender dynamic at play here. A lot of people have noted that men can get away with much more aggressive behavior in the workplace than women can, with fewer social consequences, and this may be one example.
I've done that at times as well. You and I are exceptions; far more people tend to write too tentatively rather than too forcefully.
And you've reminded me of another rule that I'll now write about soon.
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