If the focus is on what someone needs to know rather than how it’s expressed, email will tend to be short. Without thematic focus, people writing email wind up just interfacing with their own thoughts, and the receipient is subjected to the sender’s inner monologue. Only on rare occasions do I write an email that’s more than five sentences.

It’s pretty obvious when an email is little more a person thinking out loud. As the sender and responder, you have the responsibility to frame the exchage with an emphasis on concision and signal over noise.

Open sentences with delimiting phrases like “The main point is” or “The three issues I want addressed are,” and so on. You’ll find that you receive the short and on-point style of email you send. It becomes the expectation.