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Writing sensible email messages
Merlin Mann | Sep 19 2005
As we've seen before, getting your inbound email under control will give you a huge productivity boost, but what about all the emails you send? If you want to be a good email citizen and ensure the kind of results you're looking for, you'll need to craft messages that are concise and easy to deal with. First: Understand why you're writingBefore you type anything into a new message, have explicit answers for two questions:
If you can't succinctly state these answers, you might want to hold off on sending your message until you can. People get dozens, hundreds, even thousands of emails each day, so it's only natural for them to gravitate toward the messages that are well thought-out and that clearly respect their time and attention. Careless emails do not invite careful responses. Think through your email from the recipient's point of view, and make sure you've done everything you can to try and help yourself before contacting someone else. If it's a valuable message, treat it that way, and put in the time to making your words count. Get what you needAlthough the possible topics and content of messages are theoretically endless, I'd propose that there are really just three basic types of business email.
It should be clear to your recipient which type of email yours is; don't bury the lede. Get the details and context packed into that first sentence or two whenever you can. Don't be afraid to write an actual “topic sentence” that clarifies a) what this is about, and b) what response or action you require of the recipient.
This isn't the place to practice your stand-up act. Keep it pithy, and assume that no one will ever read more than the first sentence of anything you write. Making that first sentence strong and clear is easily the best way to interest your recipient in the second sentence and beyond. Write a great Subject lineYou can make it even easier for your recipient to immediately understand why you've sent them an email and to quickly determine what kind of response or action it requires. Compose a great “Subject:” line that hits the high points or summarizes the thrust of the message. Avoid “Hi,” “One more thing...,” or “FYI,” in favor of typing a short summary of the most important points in the message:
In fact, if you're relating just a single fact or asking one question in your email, consider using just the subject line to relate your message. As I've mentioned before, in some organizations, such emails are identified by adding Sadly, good email subjects have become something of a lost art, especially among more recent additions to the Interweb. It's a pity, because you're far more likely to get a favorable response from a busy person when they can quickly grok your message. Brevity is the soul of...getting a responseIt's completely depressing to check your email at 4:55 in the afternoon to discover a gothic novel of a message waiting for you, spilling down your screen the distance of 2 or 3 scrolling pages. It's certainly not the kind of thing that excites the desire to engage and respond. I mean just look at all that! So, although—in typical Merlin fashion—I have only anecdotal evidence and hunches to prove this point, I'd wager that there's one visual trick most likely to improve your message's success: fit it onto one screen with no scrolling. There's a reason those web ads placed “above the fold” cost a lot more than the ones stuck down at the bottom; it's the only part of the page that you're virtually assured that anyone will see. Whenever you can, try to distill your beautiful epistle down to just one or two points about a given topic, and then whittle that down to the point where there's plenty of white space left underneath your closing. Got more to say? Put it in separate emails with—again—excellent Subject lines, and a descriptive, concise opener. What's the action here?If your message includes any kind of request—whether for a meeting, a progress update, a pony ride, or what have you—put that request near the top of the message and clearly state when you will need it. Do not, under any circumstances, assume that your overwhelmed recipient will take the time to sift through your purple prose for clues about what they're supposed to be doing for you. Depending on the style of your team and the volume of mail they create, you might even consider adding functional text headers to the top of the body outlining the exact nature of the message. This email is: [ ] actionable [x] fyi [ ] social Response needed: [ ] yes [x] up to you [ ] no Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [ ] soon [x] none Sure, it's geeky, but how many minutes have you wasted panning through a sloppy “project update” email only to completely miss the changed deadline or work request buried in the penultimate paragraph? Remove the guesswork from your messages by thinking of them like friendly, civil work orders; you must not be afraid to ask for what you want, especially if you have any desire to actually have the recipient give it to you. More good ideas
[Thanks to Cory for exchanges and thoughts that contributed to this.] 40 Comments
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That's a lot of good...Submitted by William Pietri (not verified) on September 20, 2005 - 12:08am.
That's a lot of good stuff! But I disagree completely about the subject line being the only message. When I'm in high-volume email mode, I'm reading and responding to one message after another; there's no clicking to view the body. I focus on the message first, and the blank message body is jarring. I agree that the subject line should be a concise summary, so that scanning a list or searching will work well. But if somebody can't take the time to send me an entire sentence, I find it harder to work up the energy to give them a proper response. » POSTED IN:
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