Default structure

Subject: [Action, Decision, Update, Risk]: [topic]

[First sentence: the ask or punchline.]

[Two to five lines of facts, with names, numbers, and dates.]

[Recommendation or next step.]

[Owner and deadline.]

Dollars to donuts the next generation of AI models will use this template as is, humans will forget to replace the placeholders and you’ll start getting a ton of emails with some of the placeholders verbatim.

All emails should be 2 lines only, is something I learned when I started working in an office. For example,

  WHAT YOU ARE SAYING

  WHAT YOU NEED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE (RESPONSE OR DECISION OR ACTION ETC)

As time goes on, often I say (to myself) "forget that", and write all the detail that is needed anyway, even in email. But only for audiences that may care about the detail (or otherwise are safe to skip the email altogether).

But who uses email at work anymore, anyway, right? I guess some organizations.

• today at 5:21 PM

• nlawalker

  today at 5:23 PM

  I prefer adding the detail; if it's going to turn into a phone call anyway I might as well have a script ready to go.

• stronglikedan

  today at 5:10 PM

  Most orgs still rely heavily on email, and most emails should be more than two lines to be useful. If it's only two lines, Slack it.

in his email he says :

Please reply by 3 pm today so we can confirm with the client.

in my experience when an action relies on somebody 'coming back' ESPECIALLY if it's a client. (do you want this, or that?)

It's best to tell them what you are going to do, unless they confirm otherwise.

e.g. We will proceed with removing feature Y to meet deadline of Mar 19, unless otherwise directed by 3pm today.

This avoids the limbo situtation where a team can't progress because they don't have clarity on X or Y.

Not always applicable but I find it works a lot of the time.

After sending emails to suppliers, they would often answer the first point in the text but ignore later points. This speaks to the send only 1 thing in an email, but if you have a few questions about something then put them in a numbered list.

I found response quality went way up when i did this, and often the responses were along the lines of :

1. do this 2. yes that's right 3. ok we note that

which i'm sure helps them becuaes the email is easier to read and parse in the first place and easier to write a reply to.

• sdevonoes

  today at 5:37 PM

  Certainly I have never been in such a situation, but just for me to understand: if the sender has enough decision power to move forward with a default action without confirmation, then the email is simply a polite notice to someone above in the command chain, isn’t it?

  Why the email then? Wouldn’t a record of the decision (not via email , but in some confluence-like space) be enough? If the confirmation is really needed then a default action wouldn’t be possible, ofc

  • zhengyi13

    today at 5:53 PM

    You've probably got a certain level of trust or delegated authority, but you want input and you're giving your leadership the opportunity to steer the decision if they feel they need to, and you're balancing that against the urgency of action.

    By very direct analogy, I think there's a dictum in the US military to the effect that a bad plan executed quickly can be better than a perfect plan that's executed too late.

    ETA: ... and you're potentially speeding the decision/action by giving leadership the opportunity to confirm/redirect on receipt of the email.

Preach. I would love to see all email like this. I learnt this in my very first work place and will never get the trend of starting every email with "I hope you are doing well".

I live and work in France, and oh boy... It's just cultural. Every email is like a letter to the King. "Would you be so kind enough to consider my humble request that is described hereafter in next three paragraphs". Funny thing: I welcome AI summaries on those.

My other pet peeve: meeting invitations. Half of the meetings in my calendar are called "Point" in French (loosely translated as "Topic"), the other half has no descriptions but the headlines. I tried the "I am not going unless I know why I am invited" thing to no avail - you cannot win this against the entire org.

So, you guess from the list of invitees. Or ask the organizer at lunch. Then go with them to the meeting to discuss the Topic for 15 minutes. Which could have been easily discussed at lunch, but lunch time is reserved to discuss food, not work.

Oh well. I love our cuisine, though. And the culture, and people, everything really. Just not how we write email.

I find that making the very last sentence a question makes it much more likely that I'll get a response than if the question is anywhere else in the email. The person needs to finish reading the email with the question, which prompts them to hit reply and answer it.

The immediate-response-rate goes down even more if the input being sought is not framed as a question ("I've been trying to figure out how to handle this situation" versus "Which do you think is the better route?").

Of course, some people will still respond regardless, but I've found that in both personal and business emails, keeping an email short and finishing with a question mark is the best way to ensure a rapid response.

• robinsonb5

  today at 5:38 PM

  Also, strictly one question per email - otherwise only the first will be answered and any others ignored!

  • apparent

    today at 5:57 PM

    Yeah, if there are multiple items to address, I tend to use bulleted lists and then end the email with "What do you think?"

  • Insimwytim

    today at 5:55 PM

    There should be some process that punishes those, who does that.

I feel like incorporating the BLUF[0] strategy has helped my emails be more effective.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication)

For all the stress about making emails short and to the point, this subject example is entirely too long. No one is reading all this.

> Good: Action needed today: approve revised offer Decision needed: pricing for Client X Update: contract signed with Acme Risk: launch delayed by one week

Some of these are good, but a lot of it depends on company culture. It sounds like he's barking orders at people, which may be received poorly. Some of it borders on sounding like Kevin in The Office when he tried to eliminate words from his speech to save time.

Best if the subject line is the conclusion and the message supports that.

Subject: feature X dropped from v4.4

Body: we all know this feature is delayed and will cause the release to slip. Marketing gave us the OK to defer it to 4.5

Dear Aunt Bee, Thank you for the sweater.

https://tinyurl.com/z9m89k2z

• Insimwytim

  today at 5:47 PM

  No reason to post shortened URL instead of this:

  https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...

• al_borland

  today at 5:42 PM

  I took technical writing my freshman year of college. The teacher said I was a natural. I then transferred to the business college and they beat that right out of me.

As I was reading, I mostly thought "well, it might make sense sometimes; well, it's an opinion"

And then I reached:

> 10. AI is fine. Generic language is not.

> It is fine to use AI to draft or review an email.

> But edit it until it sounds specific and human.

Ok, maybe we shouldn't take advice from someone, who authoritatively states it is fine to put slop in the email?

i learned the SCRAP mnemonic a long while ago: Situation; Complication; Resolution; Actions; Politeness.

works when the recipient is attuned to it. when the recipient is attuned to flowery/over-polite language i've found they can get upset/assume you're being rude/dismissive.

decent guidelines, esp for someone new to office work. my advice: nobody wants to read your email, so if you must send one keep it extremely short: between 0 to 3 sentences.