All good stuff. I would add that having a range of signature files available is also a useful thing to set up. Different levels of contact details depending on what your relationship is with the recipient of the email.

These are great tips! Thanks! Here are a few others that might augment yours nicely:

1) Use To: and CC: lines to differentiate between people who have action items in an email and people for whom this is merely informative: I use this with my team, and my manager uses this as well. I filter mail by whether I’m on the To: line or the CC: line and know which ones I need to act on and which ones to read/review.

2) Change the subject if the thread has changed or if the original subject was too vague, but include the original subject parenthetically: If I’m included on a thread from someone with a subject like “FW: Help, please,??? and a reply from me is needed, I usually change the subject to something clearer, but include the original subject so that it’s clear to all that I’m not starting a completely new thread. I.e. I might change the aforementioned subject to “Samples needed for UK Customer (was RE: Help, please).??? The same thing can be done for threads that have wavered from their original theme, or if forwarding a poorly named email or thread to someone else – i.e. “Pls. review/approve these requests (was FW: Can you do this)???

Thanks again, there are some wonderful tips in here that I think I’ll start working towards today!

David

Awesome post! Dig the additions from Tommy and David, too. I’d add that URLs inline with text can make messages hard to read, so I usually separate them onto their own lines. For example, if the thrust of your message does not rely on the URLs, but you need them there to back up your point, just reference them with numbered brackets like [1] and [2]. Then below the message body you can put:

  [1] 43 Folders: Hipster PDA
  http://url.goes.here
  [2] Other reference link
  http://url2.goes.here

I came here from Boing Boing… wow, that’s really handy! A veritable clip-and-save. I’ve been doing what Josh Carter suggests about the URLs for awhile now too. :)

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.

Acronyms that may be useful shorthand in subjects: * EOM End Of Message * RR Response required * AR Action Required * ATTACH Contains attachemnt * PERS Personal * CONT Continued * MEET Meeting * MINUTES Message contains minutes of meeting.

Using these is viral, one you start to use the system, it’ll spread throughout the organisation.

Have a web page set up on your intranet about the acronyms and other email usage tips and whenever someone asks, point them to it. http://www.liamdelahunty.com/tips/using_email.php (old old old!)

A structured writting class I took had a good suggestion re: emails that I’ll add.

When you have multiple things in an email (say a project status), write a concise summary graph followed by an index with the major items: 1) Ad Copy Delayed 2) Server Configuration Complete 3) Awaiting Client sign-off

Then use the same topics as section headers - that way a large list of readers can quickly jump to the things that interest them.

Great tips.

One additional thing I’ve found absolultely critical is to make sure I don’t bury two or three important points in one dense paragraph.

I’ve had editors completely miss my requests for information because they seem to read the first sentence of each paragraph, answer the question, then move on. You have to write like your recipient has a severe attention-deficit disorder.

Thus: a few short paragraphs are way more effective than one long one made of the exactly same sentences.

Go through your finished email and hit Return whenever you spot a critical idea or request.

joe - I use that approach as well, and I appreciate it when others separate key points that way too. It’s a really simple way to make an e-mail more digestible.

We have a friend whose e-mails are one ginormous paragraph, full of run-on sentences to boot. I’ll literally put the cursor at the end of random sentences and hit Enter, just to break it up a bit.

I’m forwarding the text of this post (and the URL citation) to everyone in my department. This is Power Email 101. AWESOME.

I totally agree with you on summarizing the big points, Jonathan.

When I was doing a lot of project management, I’d send meeting notes that always began—very very first thing—with everyone’s outstanding/changed TODOs:

[ ] - Tina - Call Adrian (555-1212)
[ ] - Chris - 2005-10-01 - Fix snare
[ ] - Jerry - Check on set
[x] - David - Finish bridge

Great post; very useful. I think that you may have buried the lede in it a little bit, though. It might help to condense a little bit. Or do an abstract.

RTFM should probably be the first item on this page.

I frequently want to cover multiple points in one message. They’re all related—it would be more trouble all around to send them as multiple messages. But I’ve found it’s a good practice to create numbered lists. This gets the recipient’s attention (“Oh, there are 4 things I need to look at”), makes it easier to respond to each, and makes it possible to refer to each point simply by its number in any follow-up.

If someone asks you a direct question, quote it back and give a direct response immediately after. Elaborate as needed, but the first word out of your fingertips should be the most direct response possible.

> Can you get this to me by Friday? No. Tuesday at the earliest. I am still waiting for a parts shipment, which won’t arrive until Monday.

Another tip - use double-spacing when typing a list of items. You never know how the recipient’s email program will handle tabs or paragraph markers. That single-spaced list might come thru as one jumbled up paragraph.

People use email in different ways. Why should my great aunt, who writes emails like hand-inked letters from days of yore, be expected not to do that? That’s how she likes to write, and having a diversity of ways we use technology strengthens just about everything you can think of.

I think the key is being considerate. You have to be considerate to the lifestyle of the person you are writing, and write to that. These suggestions are all great for business emails, or emailing Jason Kottke, but I think taking them as universal gospel trims a bit close the beautiful tree of technology usage.

When I compose the entire message in the subject line, I’ve always used NT for (no text) at the end of it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen or heard of EOM. Am I the only one out there who uses NT?

Great article/post, I’ll definetly have to forward it the next time I’m a victum of email abuse.

Coincidentally, I’ve been getting peeved about all those tiny “thanks” emails I’ve been getting as a decent part of my work requires quick little things I do for people and I send them a “done” email so they know their work request is finished.

Perhaps my “done” is just as much abuse as the “thanks” emails. I’ve wondered if people think I’m subliminally looking for a back patting because I send them a “done” email when I merely want to close the request.

Unfortunetly there’s no easy way to ask people to stop sending thanks without sounding rude or crazy. Perhaps I should convince HR to give the company a class an email etique and base it on this article.

Put NT/EOM/NM (no message) at the beginning: That way it’s not cut off by a narrow subject field.

When sending people a URL it is important to tell them why they should click on it. I often get emails with a subject of “Check this out!” and the body is just a URL. This is particularly annoying on email lists. I’d like to spend less time looking at pictures of people cats.

When quoting news articles, please link to the source.

When passing on incredible information, please do some background checking first. Snopes.com is a good start.

I attended a seminar that dealt with a lot of these topics last year. Check out WordTask for their email course and others.

This article could be shortened to “use good writing style in email,” and “write appropriately for audience and context.” But it’s always nice to have specific tips spelled out.

The checkboxes idea is overboard. If your email requires a checkbox to be understood, rewrite the first sentence. I know checkboxes wouldn’t fly in my organization.

Some suggestions for your excellent “Writing sensible email messages” post. I use them most of the time and they work reasonably well.

1. If you cannot think of a one-line summary of the message, rethink the message, break it into many or find the common thread. No common thread? Break the message up.

2. Subject lines should be in three parts: {Action|FYI}: {Project}: Summary of {Action|FYI}

Action|FYI: You either must do something (Action) based on the contents of the message and your life is spared, or just take notice of something (FYI) and no action on your part won’t rip the fabric of the universe.

Project: A message (Action or FYI) must be related to a Project (or Initiative or whatever).

The summary lets the recipient know at a glance what is inside.

E.g.: Action: Larry Tate: Project folders needed on Mon 26 Sep 2005 10:00 AM on my desk

E.g.: FYI: Larry Tate: Catering confirmed for Mon 26 Sep 2005 2:00 PM

E.g.: Action: Larry Tate: Meeting: All senior PMs meeting Mon 26 Sep 2005 3:00 PM-4:00 PM Summit Room

E.g. (extension): Meeting: Larry Tate: All senior PMs meeting Mon 26 Sep 2005 3:00 PM-4:00 PM Summit Room

TO|CC|BCC: Those in the TO field are required to do something (Action) and those in the CC field should NOT do anything (if needed, under separate cover).

For an FYI, as no reply is required, all can go in the TO field.

However, to avoid reply-to-all brawls, put all recipients in the BCC field and send the message to yourself. Some products may allow you to gracefully hide the distribution list.

Simple and effective. They must be shared with and accepted by the recipients and, of course, intelligent, reasonable and mutually-agreed deviations from the norm are acceptable.

Hope it helps!

Mauro

I don’t agree with the tip “Change the subject if the thread has changed”. That my screw up the grouping feature in my Gmail. I prefer people don’t change subject line, when they replying.

This is problem of GMail and point.

Mail agents can: - group messages using “In-Reply-To” or “References” to make threads; - search for linked messages (MS Office Outlook).

GMail, like any other web interface, is not supposed for serious work with mail when more then 100 corporate messages per day arrives (not counting maillists, personal etc.) And of course GMail can’t be used for corporate mailing for security reasons :-)

If anyone interested, there is a now a translation of this article into Russian.

Check it out here.

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