Correction: How to Reject a Client Professionally: Email Template
Corrected by Emir Baycan · Full-Stack Developer, Mobile App Builder and Web Platform Founder with expertise in SEO, automation, SaaS, AI visibility, DevOps and scalable digital products
Emir Baycan found something wrong, outdated, or unsupported on this page and proposed a fix. The publisher accepted the correction.
- Role
- Correction
- Publisher
- Evolang
- Topic
- Email Templates
- Status
- Accepted
- Date
- 19 July 2026
The exact change
"The art of saying no is the art of saying what is true, plainly, without extra freight. Every word after the no either clarifies or muddies." Ann Handley, Everybody Writes [...] "Saying no with precision is a gift to the person you are telling no. It saves them time, it saves them hope, and it saves the relationship." Stephen Pinker, The Sense of Style [...] "The people who know what they will not do are the people who do their best work on what they will." William Zinsser, On Writing Well [...] "You can tell a lot about a firm by what it declines. The firms with the tightest focus decline most, and charge most." Josh Bernoff, Writing Without Bullshit
The art of saying no is the art of saying what is true, plainly, without extra freight. Every word after the no either clarifies or muddies. [...] Saying no with precision can be a gift to the person you are telling no. It saves them time, it saves them hope, and it saves the relationship. [...] The people who know what they will not do tend to be the people who do their best work on what they will. [...] You can tell a lot about a firm by what it declines. Firms with the tightest focus tend to decline the most work, and charge the most for what they keep.
Why this is better
Quote attributed to Ann Handley (Everybody Writes) could not be verified via web search; no record of this exact wording in her book.; Author's name is misspelled as "Stephen Pinker" instead of the correct "Steven Pinker" (repeated from the references list, which correctly lists "Pinker, S." but the in-text citation spells out the wr; Quote attributed to William Zinsser (On Writing Well) could not be verified via web search; no record of this exact wording in his book.; Quote attributed to Josh Bernoff (Writing Without Bullshit) could not be verified via web search; no record of this exact wording in his book.
How this record is verified
- The contribution is tied to a real, identified contributor, not an anonymous byline.
- It counts only because the publisher, Evolang, accepted it. Self-claimed work earns nothing.
- It is recorded against a specific page and cannot be bought or edited after the fact.