How Face-Saving Politeness Strategies Can Improve Online Relationships

Here’s how different types of face-saving politeness acts can have a positive effect on online relationships and mentor-mentee interactions.

Now more than ever, online communication hinges on important relationships that often involve power dynamics—especially in mentor-mentee situations. Work, schooling, and business transactions frequently occur online in modern-day society, and the people in positions of power—or in other words, mentors—need to know how to cultivate fruitful relationships with their mentees online. These mentors can improve online communication through learning and applying strategies that people use in live, face-to-face interactions.

THE RESEARCH

A 2018 study by Mohammad Reza Khodashenas and Amin Karimnia called “Patterns of Politeness in Teacher-Student Interaction: Investigating an Academic Context” provides a great example of politeness interactions within a live classroom setting. The researchers based their study on Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, focusing on face-saving acts and face-threatening acts. Face-saving acts prevent damage to a person’s positive or negative reputation, while face-threatening acts damage a person’s reputation.

The researchers attended four classes where they recorded 50 instructor-student interactions, transcribed them, and classified them as different types of utterances (either face-saving or face-threatening) used for classroom management. In this study, face-saving utterances “revealed how the instructors showed awareness and consideration of the students through indirect and polite markers,” while face-threatening utterances or acts “displayed how the instructors showed less awareness and consideration toward the students through direct expressions” (80).

They found that, out of the 50 interactions, 46% were face-threatening utterances and 54% were face-saving utterances. Some of the specific positive face-saving acts that instructors used included modality (e.g., would you, could you), appreciative expressions (e.g., thank you, good), and polite markers (e.g., please, excuse me). Instructors also used students’ names when addressing them. These strategies generate feelings of comfort within the classroom and enhance student self-esteem. They especially come in handy when instructors need to issue corrections or criticism of their students.

THE IMPLICATIONS

In online interactions, communicating intent is more difficult, and that’s why cultivating a positive mentor-mentee relationship is crucial. This study provides concrete ways for mentors to apply face-saving politeness acts to their interactions with mentees—even if those interactions occur online—because “students feel more comfortable and appreciated in the class if instructors produce utterances which are polite and enhance their self-esteem” (83). Mentors can use appreciative expressions in their interactions, whether through video call or messaging, especially when requesting something from their mentees. Additionally, they might employ modality and polite markers and use mentees’ names when directly addressing them. Through these specific actions, mentors can create positive feelings that lead to positive relationships. 

To learn more about politeness strategies in the classroom, read the full article here: 

Karimnia, Amin and Khodashenas, Mohammad Reza. 2017. “Patterns of Politeness in Teacher-Student Interaction: Investigating an Academic Context.” In The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances 5 no. 1: 69–87. https://doi.org/10.22049/jalda.2018.26181.1055. 

 —Emma Rostrom, Netiquette

FEATURE IMAGE BY RESUME GENIUS

Find more research

To learn more about the concept of positive politeness and how it applies online, check out Richard Beazer’s Netiquette article “Positive Politeness on Youtube.”

For insights about how to address specific audiences, check out Liberty Howell’s Netiquette article “Tailor Your Message to Your Audience: Lessons from Taylor Swift.”