A common piece of advice about writing a "bad news message" is to use the indirect approach: use buffers before the reader gets the negative news. The article, "Buffers in bad news messages and recipient perceptions," claims that there is no empirical proof to support using the indirect approach with bad news.
Read the article, especially the section titled "Significant findings and their implications," then
Write a bad news message using the strategy that Limaye suggests;
reflect on how this approach is similar or different to other "bad news messages" that you have read or received.
Which type of "bad news message" do you prefer? Why?