3 ms·
1) "We apologize for any harm we might have caused" 2) "We apologize for any harm that we caused" 3) "We apologize for all the harm that we caused" (1) is th
by jmchuster 5y ago
1) "We apologize for any harm we might have caused"
2) "We apologize for any harm that we caused"
3) "We apologize for all the harm that we caused"
(1) is the least apologetic. This could be interpreted as saying "we might or might not have caused harm, and we think we didn't but you think we did, so we're going to apologize for your sake, but we're not really sorry because we didn't do anything wrong from our perspective".
(3) is the most apologetic. You acknowledge that you did something wrong, and that you're apologizing for it. This might be followed up with a specific list of the things that you did wrong, and that you are apologizing for. That would make for the most sincere apology. This could be interpreted as "we caused harm and we're sorry, whatever harm you think that we did, we agree that you are right, and we are sorry for all of it".
(2) is partway between (1) and (3). You acknowledge you caused harm, but you won't enumerate the things that you did wrong. So, you leave yourself a little bit of wiggle room. This could be interpreted as "we caused harm and we're sorry, but we didn't cause that much harm, we think it was actually quite little, you think it was a lot, but we're saying sorry, so let us go with this apology".
- splithalf 5y agoA sincere written apology should be 3. You needn’t misrepresent your own intentions to do this, but it does require thinking about the specific harms you have caused (perhaps unintentionally) and enumerating them in a way that doesn’t minimize their import. That is the anatomy of a true apology. It requires taking the other perspective as fact.