How to write business emails
First things first. Say what you want the recipient to do (approve something, give you information, or just read). Then give the detail.
The advantage of being fifty is that you can tell people what you mean without any fear. I have noted with increasing frequency the number of colleagues who write accurately but in an unstructured, or poorly structured way. Often slightly tweaking can have massive benefits.
Earlier this week I recommended some slight changes to one such draft, suggesting that the bottom be moved to the top, and then the email would go from grade E to A. That evening, this advice was on the following tweet from Tim Harford.
So how do we make our electronic missives so massively simple? Chances are that the point of action that you're trying to share feels a little murky when you first click on “compose,” so as inspired by Pixar's story-creating method, we previously devised a free-writing technique to get your message out of your head and sent to your recipient (and they can get back to you):
- Start by writing what you think you are trying to say
- Discover that the first few lines are wholehearted hogwash
- Rejoice in your determination to write something well
- Keep your hands on the keyboard, look for the conclusion when it appears
- THEN move that conclusion to the top of the message
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allanbeardsworth 