Email Writing Best Practices From Guest Contributor Ken O’Quinn

In the rush to keep up with emails, many of us hurriedly type a message, bang the send button, and then wonder why the reader ignored it.

You can’t just spray information on the screen and assume that because it’s all there somewhere that the reader will piece it together. Nor can you use the first two paragraphs as a warm-up exercise and eventually get around to why you are writing. Your intended audience owes you nothing. If you don’t give them a reason to read, they have plenty of other things to do. Therefore, consider these best practices before you hit “reply all” or draft a new email.

Make the subject line specific

A substantive subject line delivers real information indicating what is in the message that makes it worth the reader’s time. Most people are sloppy. They toss in two or three words – the first that come to mind – but the words give the reader little insight as to the nature of the message. Use six or seven words if you need them to be specific.

Use a summary paragraph

In most messages, the opening paragraph should contain two or three highlights that capture the essence of the entire memo. Busy readers wondering whether they need to deal with this issue now should be able to read the first paragraph and know anything of importance relating to why you wrote the message.

A good summary paragraph accomplishes two things:

As in the lead of a news story, it focuses the reader’s attention on the core news and provides context.
It reduces the time needed to comprehend the rest of the message. By giving the reader a preview of what is to come, you give the reader a path, a sense of where you are taking her, making it easier for her to absorb and process the rest of your message.

A summary paragraph is not laden with details; those are below, in the body of the text. If you have any concern that the reader will miss something important, point the reader to it by saying something such as “See the ‘next steps’ paragraph below for instructions.”

If you are conveying unpleasant information (the “bad news” message), you might not open with a summary paragraph, because the significant information is the bad news, and you probably will not want to begin with that.

Use graphic elements for easy reading

People use bullets and bold headings in a more traditional Word document memo, but they tend not to do it in email. Why not? If it’s a one- or two-sentence message, fine. But in a longer email, consider using them. They make the information more easily accessible.

What’s your biggest peeve about emails? How do you balance the need to communicate quickly with the need to communicate clearly? Share your ideas. 
Ken O’Quinn is a former Associated Press writer and now a corporate writing coach who conducts workshops for companies such as Chevron, Visa, Oracle, Raytheon, Sprint, and John Deere. Find more tips at www.WritingWithClarity.com and www.facebook.com/WritingWithClarity.

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