Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [16]
Some comprehension of how, in all these ways, e-mail adds to the pressures of business today, is the starting point in writing it well.
How to Write Effective E-Mail
Business e-mail comes in several flavors. A large part consists of fast, terse notes — generally the shorter the better, as we will cover. In many cases, e-mail is replacing the paper memo or letter, but that doesn’t change the factors that go into a good memo or letter.
Then there’s a powerful new use of e-mail — collaborative work, a product of the Internet/PC era. This use reduces the need for collaborators to be in the same room (or building or city) to work together. It is characterized by a brief message with a document attached for comment, calling for the principles of both good e-notes and good business writing. The authors of this book collaborated on this new edition using e-mail between New York and Chicago, trading chapters and thoughts.
All these forms of business e-mail have a common goal: to move things along and not waste time. And all present the writer with the same problem: how to make sure your message gets read.
1. Make the subject heading clear — and compelling
All e-mail looks exactly the same in your In Box. There are no visual clues to what’s important and what isn’t — no airmail stamps, no fine-looking stationery, no impressively bulky envelopes, no familiar handwriting. The only clues are the identity of the sender and the nature of the subject.
You can’t do much about the first — a recipient is either interested in hearing from you or is not. It helps, for instance, if you’re the boss.
The element that is under your control is how you identify your subject in the heading, or title. The authors come from the advertising business, and may be prejudiced on this point. But we know that the headline is the best read part of any ad, the element that gets people to read on. It’s worth studying newspapers, particularly The Wall Street Journal, to understand what kinds of headlines convert scanners to readers.
You need a subject line that compels attention and gives a sense of what follows. It can be formal or informal, serious or colorful, bland or newsy. It cannot be absent.
Think of the consultant on the plane. Which e-mail will he read first — Status of proposal or Winning client approval? We know he won’t open up e-mail without any title at all unless he knows the sender or has read everything else.
Busy executives filter their e-mail. Some use automatic filters that sort incoming messages into a priority system or just scan the index of senders and subjects. Terri Dial, who runs Wells Fargo in California, deletes a third of her messages without ever opening them (and, as a consequence, now pays more attention to her own subject lines so mail she sends gets read). She cautions against trying to get past this filtering by marking messages urgent.
Too many senders use the urgent flag and now it’s a bit like the little boy who cried wolf, only there are lots of little boys. Even if you use URGENT selectively, others don’t. And remember that if you cry wolf too often, others will note it and your e-mail will get even shorter shrift.
It is especially important that e-mail messages sent to a group quickly communicate the content so each recipient can determine if it is relevant to him or her. It is annoying to find after three paragraphs that the content is of no interest to you. Try to make clear at once which readers your message is for, e.g., Schedule for rocket-launch team.
Don’t automatically keep old titles on replies that have nothing to do with the original subject, or on correspondence that goes back and forth endlessly