4 Tips for Writing Effective Emails

Being able to write effective emails is a crucial skill for project managers. Here are four tips to help you write emails that get the results you seek.

1. Ask for something. All business writing includes a call to action. Before you write your email, know what you're asking of your audience.
   
   
2. Say it up front. Don't bury the purpose of your email in the last paragraph. Include important information in the subject line and opening sentence
   
   
3. Explain. Don't assume your reader knows anything. Provide all pertinent background information and avoid elusive references.
   
   
4. Tell them what you think. Don't use the dreaded "Your thoughts?" without explaining your own. Express your opinion before asking your reader to do the same.

Comments

[Mark T. Farmer]

Here are two more tips that I've learned from reading (and occasionally writing) bad emails:

1. Write Well
   Just because it's an email, don't throw good writing out the window. Avoid abbreviations, write in complete sentences, and break longer messages into short paragraphs. In most cases, the time saved dashing off a quick, ill-composed message is offset by the time inevitably spent having to explain what you meant to say.
2. Use Threads
   When you reply to a message (as opposed to creating a new one), you save the previous message in a thread. This is a great help as it maintains the "flow" of the conversation. Conversely, if you're starting a new topic of conversation, DON'T use the reply key to save time retyping the recipient's email address. This will collect the new topic under the same subject heading as the old one and make it difficult to find at some future date.