The Art Of The Apology

Hasty comment....

And I suppose, haste goes to the heart of the issue. We are all rushed, all multi-tasking, all shooting our mouths off all over the internet.

It seems to me that civility has gone to the wall. (Or not, if one is a FaceBook user!)

In the last week, I have seen two instances on different --professional-- Yahoo groups of misguided individuals singling out and insulting other individuals. When their jaw-dropping rudeness has been pointed out, the offenders have apologized not to their victims, but to the group with a "Perhaps I was mistaken..." or "My bad..." or "Sorreee. I need a coffee."

In one case at least, I know that the offensive individual did not also apologize privately to his victim.

A soft answer still turns away wrath. Especially if delivered promptly. In my opinion, in addition to an ever ready selection of well crafted "elevator pitches", every author should have a small rolodex of disarming apologies.

If any visitor has an example of a really well-worded apology, please leave it as a comment.

I'm offering two prizes of a Barnes and Noble gift card... one for the 8th sample apology, and one for the exemplary that I like best. Samples do not have to be original, they may be quotes of a famous person's apology if quoted with proper attribution.

(I would have offered a Borders one, but I understand that Borders is currently supporting a pirate site with their advertising dollars.)