Send Better Email

Email has infiltrated almost every career, and done so with gusto.We're all familiar with the experience of opening our mailbox for the day and finding piles of email waiting for us. With so much email going around, people struggle just to get through their inboxes, let alone read every message in detail.

Email is not letter writing, at least, not business email. If you're writing to your pen pal, feel free to ignore all of this advice! If not, skip the flowery language, long paragraphs, and extraneous detail. Your goal is to communicate clearly. If you can make your emails easier to read, you make your recipients' lives easier and increase the chances that your email gets read fully.

Structure

There are of course many ways to write an email, but here's a basic outline that works when you're contacting someone:

Dear Person,

Here's who I am. Here's what I want. I appreciate your time.

Thank you,

Me

If you're responding to someone, this works well:

Dear Person,

Thanks for getting in touch. [I apologize for thing that makes you unhappy.] Here's your answer/solution. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thank you,

Me

That's it! Keep it simple.

Don't Hide Action Items

Your email is going to have some central points in it: maybe they're questions, maybe they're answers, maybe they're directions. Whatever they are, don't bury them in a paragraph. Instead, put them on their own lines, or maybe even put them in a list. If we were to expand on the templates from above, we might do something like this:

Dear Person,

Here's who I am. I have some questions:

• Question 1

• Question 2

I appreciate your time.

Thank you,

Me

Use Rich Text

Your email client can send rich-text emails—emails with formatting in them. Take advantage of the tools to make important things stand out. That's a great way to make things stand out in your email. Here's another example.

Dear Person,

Here's who I am. Are you free next Tuesday?

Thank you,

Me

Make Your Answers Clear

If someone sends you an email full of questions, make sure you answer all of them. But don't do it in a rambling set of paragraphs. Copy their questions and answer inline.

Dear Person,

Thanks for getting in touch. Here are your answers:

Question 1

Answer 1

Question 2

Answer 2

Thank you,

Me

Copy and Paste Liberally

This is less a point about formatting and style, and more a tip for making your life easy—and less embarrassing. Don't type anything you don't have to. It's easier on your hands, and you'll never screw up someone's name.

Attachments

Here's one last general point. When you type the words "attached," "included," or any of their ilk take your hands off the keyboard. Go find your file and attach it to the email. That way you won't have the always-lovely experience of someone writing you back to ask for the file.