The burden of communication is on the communicator; not the recipient.
Therefore proper email communication and email etiquette is for YOU to use
- Use active and strong subject lines – be exact
- Link to exact content or web pages – nobody has time to google it
- use numbered lists – numbered lists in email define priority
- limit use of bulleted lists – bulleted lists in email are for the lazy communicator
Further, try to use reasonably short paragraphs. Use these guidelines on how to write a decent email that might actually produce results.
Specifically email communication must use:
- Email Subject Lines – all emails need a well articulated and relevant Subject Line.
- Examples of good email subject lines:
- Client X going live on Tuesday July 29 before Friday Board Meeting
- Training help file on email etiquette posted on eschipul.com
- “Feast with the Beast” Presale Facebook AD text (sent to the zoo)
- Bad subject lines torture your coworkers with anxiety which lowers morale and greatly reduces profitability.
- Every time an email is sent with a bad subject line, a baby seal dies. This is sad. Save the baby seals! Use good subject lines!
- Examples of good email subject lines:
- Links to the EXACT content or subject because ease of use changes behavior.
- Ease of use changes behavior. Without links people will NOT click through to see the work that has been done.
- It is rare that an email goes out that is truly not about SOMETHING that should be linked. Yes exceptions occur, but they are rare exceptions. Link to what you are talking about. Or don’t waste other people’s time if you are just that lazy.
- Think about it. It is not your coworker’s responsibility to overcome your unwillingness to copy/paste a link from a site you are probably looking at when you sent the email!
- Every time an email is sent without relevant and specific links, a baby seal dies. This is sad. Save the baby seals! Use links!
- Numbered Lists – organize your information.
- Bulleted lists suck – bullets are fundamentally evil because they do NOT convey priority by the sender (YOU!). Yet the recipient invariably starts at the top assuming this is in fact the top priority.
- Numbered lists with priority 1 being first – The value of forcing yourself to use numbered lists is that the sender (you) must organize your thoughts before confusing everyone else. It has been my experience that most people do not “order” bulleted lists but numbering makes them think about it.
- Raise your hand if you like numbered lists! Now raise your other hand so things balance out. Or to put it another way – be kind to people who need this structure. It benefits you if people understand your message. Embrace diversity including “diversity of types of thinkers.” Structure and prioritize your content in email communication, or really any communication.
- Use Short Paragraphs – with rare exceptions
- Shorter paragraphs with strong subject sentences greatly increase reading comprehension.
- Speed readers tend to read the first sentence of a paragraph and use that to make a decision if they should bother reading the rest. Shorter paragraphs means more of your message is consumed regardless.
- They force you to organize your thoughts before wasting everyone else’s time!
- Don’t use Nickel words – save them for scrabble
- To repeat – the burden of communication is on the communicator, including in email, not the recipient. While it is possible to write in tongues, this needlessly reduces comprehension.
- But don’t oversimplify an email as that just make it more confusing. Just make it as simple as possible and no simpler.
- If you must use an idiosyncratic word – well – LINK IT!
We all value our time. You do. I do. Everyone does. So it frequently seems expedient to send an email quickly without thought. The problem is the person receiving these emails might be receiving 500 emails a day and there is no way to Get Things Done without more data.
For example assuming you – not putting a decent subject line – costs each recipient 1 extra minute of time to comprehend (if they give you this minute), then an email that saved you 1 minute, just cost a company of 30 people 29 minutes of billable time. This is very real money. And these are very real emotions on the part of the recipient.
Don’t be mean; take the time to write decent emails. Or don’t speak.
[Note: this was an internal company help file for years, I probably wrote it around 2002 or 2003. This is just me reposting it for public consumption.]
[Update: You may also want to check for readability. I blogged about the gunning fog index here.]
