The Greek poet
Hesiod said, “Observe due measure, for right
timing is in all things the most important
factor.”
Back in 700 B.C.
when people didn’t have e-mail, but did have a
lot of time on their hands, they could enjoy the
verbosity of a learned man. Not so today.
Today Hesiod would
have to say, “Timing is everything.”
Otherwise, his e-mail would get trashed.
A good rule of thumb
is to figure that you have about five seconds to
communicate the essence of your e-mail. After
that, readership drops off dramatically.
Think about the
e-mails that you trash: They don’t grab
your attention; they are irrelevant; they are hard to
decipher; they are too long. Other people are
just as busy as you are, so your e-mail is competing
for readership.
The number-one
complaint that I hear from managers in our
business-writing workshops is that too many e-mails
don’t get to the point and too often include
irrelevant information.
To make sure that
you produce enticing e-mails, here are seven rules to
follow.
1. Focus on your reader’s
needs.
What does your reader
already know about your topic, and what does he now
need to know about it? Focus your message on this
need. Don’t waste time reiterating known
information.
Be direct. Get
to the point. Focus on either results or the main
point that captures the essence of your message.
2. Organize your thoughts and
present them in short sentences.
A mish-mash of
unorganized information is an easy target for the
delete button. Organizing is easy. Try the
Situation-Problem-Solution approach. This method
works especially well if you are responding to or
presenting a problem.
Quickly orient the
reader by concisely explaining the situation.
Describe the current situation, and avoid the
detailed explanation of how the situation developed.
A manager’s immediate concern is solving a
problem. Investigating the cause of a problem is
important, but is usually a secondary concern.
If you are
responding to a problem, summarize the problem in your
own words — concisely. This summary
precludes your having to include all the previous
e-mails that preceded this e-mail.
Now state your
suggested or proven solution. If your solution
has worked in a similar situation, describe the
results, if it seems appropriate.
If the
Situation-Problem-Solution approach doesn’t fit
your need, then do the following: On a piece of
scratch paper, write down the main points you want to
make. Number them in the order you want to
present them, putting the most important point first.
Now write your e-mail in that order. See,
that didn’t hurt.
Use short sentences.
Here’s why: The purpose of business
writing is to communicate information efficiently,
because your reader needs this information for a reason
(make a decision, use a product, whatever).
Efficiency means you want to write a document
quickly, and your reader wants to read it quickly.
Short sentences are
clearer than long sentences, so they speed the reading.
Short sentences allow your reader to absorb and
digest the information in small pieces without having
to go back and re-read. Overwhelming your reader
with too many ideas in one sentence will just interfere
with his absorbing the information.
Figure your average sentence
length to be 15 words.
Keep your paragraphs
short so that your e-mail looks easy to read.
After two or three short sentences, hit the
return key twice to add some white space.
3. Put key words of the main
message in the subject line.
The subject line is
the most important line in an e-mail message —
the most important. Let me repeat that. The
subject line is the most important line in an e-mail
message.
The subject line is
like the headline in a newspaper. It’s the
first line a reader looks at to determine if she is
going to read or trash your message.
Make the subject
line work to your advantage. Your e-mail is
competing with other e-mails for readership, just like
articles in a magazine are competing for readership.
What makes you read an article is the title and
the first paragraph. The professional writers
call the first paragraph the lead. The first
sentence grabs the reader’s attention, the second
tugs the reader in a little more, and the third
sentence hooks the reader.
Your subject line
should pull the reader in, so write it like a headline.
Notice that good newspaper headlines use verbs:
•
Governor vetoes tax bill
• Penn
State trounces Michigan
•
Fireman rescues toddler
You can follow suit:
•
Upgrade solves timing problem
•
New policy could bring lawsuit
•
Culinary conference cancelled
Don’t be
afraid of spilling the beans in the subject line.
After all, you are not writing mystery novels in
which you have to surprise the reader on the last page.
If your reader can get all the information she
needs in just the subject line, you will have made her
a happy person.
Remember, readers
love e-mails that don’t take a long time to read.
4. Focus on a single
message.
The next time you
finish watching a TV commercial, ask yourself what
product was being sold and why should you buy it.
If you can’t answer those questions, the
commercial probably had no main message or had too many
messages for you to remember. So you end up
remembering nothing. The commercial was a dud and the
ad agency should be fired.
People can remember
one message. If you watch a Volvo commercial, you
say to yourself, “Hmm. Volvo is a safe
car.” That’s the main message Volvo
wants you to remember.
Concentrate on
getting one main message to your reader. Focus
either on results or the most important point that the
reader needs to know. For example, if you are
reporting on a meeting, focus on what was decided at
the meeting, not how it was decided.
Here’s a get-to-the-point
e-mail:
SUBJECT:
Printer purchase postponed
“Because
we’ve already allocated funds in this quarter for
upgrading our customer-service program, we are
postponing the purchase of new printers until the third
quarter.”
Our subject line
gives most readers the information they need. The
e-mail body reiterates that information and includes
the reason for the action taken.
What your reader
doesn’t want to know is that your meeting lasted
two hours, Joe fought tooth and nail to get the new
printers this quarter and even said he might be able to
find used models, but Alex insisted that if we get
printers they should be new models, and Regina said she
needed more time anyway to bring the customer-service
program up to speed, and you’re really tired of
reading this sentence.
Focus on
what’s important to the reader. Let’s say a
rolling blackout knocked out power before you were able
to switch to a generator, because of a miscommunication
between engineering and maintenance. As a result,
the temperature rose by 20 degrees in the
climate-controlled room and ruined some
temperature-sensitive material destined to be used in
your new XJ98 Turbo Widget. Luckily, Carlos was
able to get the generator working, but obtaining and
curing new material will take another month, so
production of the XJ98 is postponed for at least a
month.
Now, if you are
writing about this situation to a production manager
who is juggling the production schedules of five
different products, what do you think he is most
interested in?
What led up to
the production delay is less important to the busy
production manager than the fact that XJ98 production
is now delayed a month. The former is nice-to-know
information, the latter is crucial information for the
production manager. Report the crucial
information.
The subject line for this e-mail
should be:
XJ98 production delayed one
month
The rest of the e-mail might read
as follows:
Yesterday’s
power failure ruined the heat-sensitive lining we use
in the XJ98. It will take us about a month to
produce a new batch. I’ll go over details
with you at next week’s staff meeting.
5. Follow the principles of
clear writing.
We love e-mail for
its speed and efficiency, but it does have a
devastating downside. Because e-mails are short
and have replaced some phone calls, many people think
that e-mail is not really writing. Therefore,
they think e-mail is not subject to the rules of
grammar and punctuation.
No such luck.
E-mail is writing and you still have to follow
the principles of clear writing. Grammar is good.
Grammar is your friend. Grammar is the glue
that holds the language together and makes it
understandable. You still have to follow the
rules of grammar.
Also, punctuation is
pertinent. Punctuation marks are like sign posts.
Commas and periods tell us when to pause and when
to stop. Dashes and colons emphasize:
“This point is important — pay
attention.”
Misplaced commas can
completely change the meaning of a message:
Consider: “Woman without her man is a
savage.” vs. “Woman, without her, man is a
savage.”
Readers equate
writing skills with intelligence. Poor grammar
and punctuation shout to the reader, “low
intelligence.” It’s not fair, but
it’s true. Don’t embarrass yourself.
Brush up on your grammar and punctuation, so that
your readers know they are dealing with an intelligent
person.
6. Keep it short and
relevant.
E-mail is not meant
for long reports. Don’t anger your reader
by sending information he considers unimportant.
Think of your e-mail as being a guest in your
reader’s office. Don’t let it take up
a lot of time.
Don’t send
e-mails to everybody on your list. Be selective.
Send to only those people who need to know.
Don’t send “nice to know”
information.
You can always
attach longer documents, but don’t abuse this
feature. Long attachments can take a long time to
download, tying up your reader’s computer and
usually irking the reader.
Put yourself in the
reader’s place. Always ask yourself,
“Would I appreciate getting this e-mail?
Would I take the time to read it?”
7. Be nice.
The purpose of all
business writing is to communicate information
efficiently, but efficiency is no excuse for rudeness.
Good manners will get you a lot further in your
career than poor manners. So be careful.
The tone of your
e-mail is carried strictly through your words.
You don’t have the advantage of vocal and
visual intonations. Something said in jest might
come across as a serious slight to the reader who
can’t see the smile on your face or hear the
chuckle in your voice.
As the ever-popular
Anonymous said, “Time is of the essence,”
so end it quickly. Say what you want to say and
leave.
Good luck, and may
cyberspace be kind to you.
# # #
Note: In our writing workshops we
address the above rules in much fuller detail.
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