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Do the work so your reader doesn’t have to.

If your recipient has to work to understand your e-mail, the results could be:

• If she is your employee, she’ll read the whole thing and try to understand. She might think she understands. What if she’s wrong?
• If she is a customer, she might just stop reading. You and your product aren’t the only fish in the sea.

So the consequences, if you don’t put in a bit of work crafting your e-mail message, can be (a) work done wrong, which means work that needs to be done over or (b) no work.

Better to put in the effort up front, yourself. You can use my Top 5 Guidelines to help:

#5. Use correct spelling, punctuation and rules of grammar.

Alas, I need to emphasize what should be habitual: Spell words correctly. Use correct punctuation. Use spell check and your own eyes, too. And no txt msg shortcuts!

• Short sentences and short paragraphs are easier to comprehend than longer ones. They also allow for white space, which helps a reader easily digest each piece of your message.
• Use bulleted lists for any series of three or more.
• Limit the emoticons and common abbreviations.  Expressions such as as LOL, BTW and  : -) create a casual impression. If that is the impression you want to make, go right ahead. But to the degree you want to be taken seriously, or if you don’t know your recipient well, stick with actual English.

#4. Include dates.

Chris emails Dave on Thursday asking for a report by “the end of next week.” On Monday Dave forwards the e-mail to Malena, asking her to take care of it. When might Malena think is the “end of next week”? If Chris had asked for the report “by Friday 3/12,” there would been no confusion (and if it arrives late he has evidence that it actually is late).

#3. Match the subject line with the subject.

Begin with a pertinent subject line. Change it if the e-mail thread changes. What can begin as “General Store’s Web Site” could turn into a thread about that client’s blog. It could also turn into a flurry of emails related to that client’s trip to Tuscany and your advice on museums to visit. Change the subject line!

Or start a new e-mail thread. If someone asks two disassociated questions in one e-mail, send them two e-mails back.

#2. Make your point.

Why are you sending the message? What do you want the reader to do? State your purpose, provide a next step or ask your question. Don’t bury your essential point! It should be in the first line or the last.

What the reader needs to do can be as active as sign a check for $1,000,000 or as seemingly passive as think it over or be aware of my plans. Just be specific:

• “Here are the photos you wanted. The photographer told me….”
• “After I interview him, I’ll call you with my impression.”
• “As you requested, I set up a meeting with Alma’s people. It’s on Dec 12 at 2:00. How many of your team will attend?”
• “I’d appreciate your answers to these questions before you leave for the conference.”
  

#1. Read it before you send it.

Too many people hit that Send button immediately after entering their final period.

Don’t just read it: read it out loud. Maybe not loudly out loud, but read it to yourself as if speaking those words to the recipient. You are looking for:

• Phrases that lack clarity due to length, ambiguity or bad grammar.
• The main point buried in the middle of the second paragraph, needing you to move it up to replace your first sentence.
• Errors such as a wrong date, a person’s name left out, or a decimal point in the wrong place.
• A comma out of place or a word misspelled. Even if they don’t change the meaning of the message, they might change the reader’s impression of you.

Always, always, always re-read your e-mails before sending them. Chances are you will find something that, if changed, will  convey your message accurately and let business continue to run smoothly. It will also make you look good!