Useful Tips on Writing Sensible Emails
Getting your email inbox 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 email messages that are concise and easy to deal with.
Understand why you’re writing
Before you type anything into a new message, have explicit answers for two questions:
- Why am I writing this email?
- What exactly do I want the result of this email to be?
If you can’t succinctly state these answers, you might want to hold off on sending your email until you can.
People get dozens, hundreds, even thousands of emails each day. So it’s only natural for them to gravitate toward those emails 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 need
Although the possible topics and content of messages are theoretically endless, there are really just three basic types of business email.
- Providing information – “Larry Tate will be in the office Monday at 10.”
- Requesting information – “Where did you put the ‘Larry Tate’ file?”
- Requesting action – “Will you call Larry Tate’s admin to confirm our meeting on Monday?”
It should be clear to your recipient which type of email yours is. Don’t bury the line. 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. 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 line
You 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 summarises the thrust of the message.
Avoid “Hi”, “One more thing” or “FYI” in favour of typing a short summary of the most important points in the message:
- Lunch rescheduled to Friday @ 1pm
- Reminder: Monday is “St Bono’s Day”- no classes
- REQ: Resend Larry Tate zip file?
- HELP: Can you backup my laptop?
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.
In some organisations, such emails are identified by adding (EOM) — for end of message — at the end of the subject line. This lets recipients see that the whole message is right there in the subject without clicking to the view the (non-existent) body.
This is highly appreciated by people who receive a large volume of mail, since it lets them do a quick triage on your message without needing to conduct a full examination.
Brevity is the soul of getting a response
It’s completely depressing to check your email at 4:55pm 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.
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.
What’s the action here?
If your message includes any kind of request — whether for a meeting, a progress update 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.
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
Remove the guesswork from your email 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
Make it easy to quote
Power email users will quote and respond to specific sections or sentences of your message. You can facilitate this by keeping your paragraphs short, making them easy to slice and dice.
Don’t chuck the ball
Emails to a thread are like comments at a meeting. Think of both like your time possessing the basketball. Don’t just chuck at the net every chance you get. Hang back and watch for how you can be most useful. Minimise noise.
A reminder never hurts
If you’re following up or responding to an email that’s more than a few days old, provide context right at the opening.
For example, “You wrote in February asking to be notified when the new asthma inhalers are in stock. Here’s a link to the items we’ve now made available on our site.”
Never mix, never worry
Do not mix topics, projects or domains of life in a given email. Inform everyone of Baby Tyler’s adorable antics in a different message than the one with the downsizing rumours and budget warnings.
No thanks
In more informal settings and in high-volume mail environments, it’s not necessary to respond with a “Thanks” email whenever someone does what you asked. Save your gratitude for the next time you pass in the hall. A one-word “Thanks” email can be crufty and unnecessary.
On the other hand, don’t hesitate to thank someone for their time if they’ve truly done you a proper.
RTFM
If you’re asking for help, make sure you’ve exhausted all the documentation and non-human resources you have at your disposal. When you do ask for help, be sure to quickly cover the solutions you’ve already tried and what the results were.
Skip the overture
If you’re writing to a busy person with an actual question or request, resist the desire to swoon for 2000 characters. Either write a fan letter or a useful email, but mixing them can seem tacky and disingenuous.
SOURCE: 43 Folders
