offering a choice<!-- --> | <!-- -->The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers

The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers


offering a choice

norm: when it is like this, it is good to do some things (see more)

Many people in Australia think like this:

When someone (e.g. Violet) wants to say something like this to someone else (e.g. Grace) “I want you (Grace) to do something now.”

It is good if Violet can say something like this about two things “You can do this one of these two things if you want, you can do this other one of these two things if you want.”

Note

Sometimes the other option is an offered way of getting out of doing the thing requested, at other times, it can be the worse option so that the person (Grace) is more likely to chose the option that person (Violet) wants.

"Would you prefer to get Chinese food or pizza for dinner?"

"Could you finish filing these documents for me, or were you about to go and write the minutes from the meeting?"

"Do you want to come to the shops with me, or would you rather keep doing your homework all afternoon?"

how to make a reasonable requestavoiding direct requests


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