Conversational Postulate

A Conversational Postulate, is a sentence that has authority inside, yet defuses the authority with a hidden question preceding it.

For instance, “….make me a cup of coffee” is quite harsh, yet “..I was wondering if you can make me a cup of coffee” is much less.

“Pick up your manuals and turn to page 53” as opposed to “…you may want to pick up your manuals and turn to page 53..” has much less assumed authority, yet should lead to the wanted outcome.