14 ms·

How to Write an Email

97 points by speckx 4mo ago

al_borland 4mo ago
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.
bibimsz 4mo ago
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.
gumby 4mo ago
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
EvanAnderson 4mo ago
I feel like incorporating the BLUF[0] strategy has helped my emails be more effective. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication)
- zenoprax 4mo ago
  This was such an improvement to mine as well. Lots of strange advice in this thread about "one sentence/question per email" and other arbitrary terseness. Just use a messaging system for single-thread async communication. Writing the email is part of the thinking process for me so by the time I finish there is a single coherent sentence that I can cut-paste to the top with the rationale/evidence/etc organized below it. If the one-liner is enough they can skip the rest (which I needed to write anyway regardless) and if they need more detail they don't have to ask. Some other practices I've picked up over the years: Responses should always be inline between relevant quotes rather than the default of hiding the original at the bottom. Remove quotes that don't matter. My favourite responses are a simple "Agreed." after a long quoted paragraph of justification. In general the email chain should get shorter with each reply otherwise it suggests that the topic is either too complex or insufficiently defined. It also gives some sense that it will eventually end! Write subject lines that make searching/filtering easy to do later rather than something to catch the recipient's attention.
  - EvanAnderson 4mo ago
    > Writing the email is part of the thinking process for me... Same here. > Responses should always be inline between relevant quotes rather than the default of hiding the original at the bottom. This is highly polarizing. As you can tell I also like inline replies. I grew up using BBSs and inline replies were common. It seemed so natural. Then Outlook came around and top-posting became the norm. I have gotten some scathing criticism from higher-ups for inline responses (along with some scant praise). I have been told, repeatedly, that inline responses are confusing. Personally, I think anybody confused by inline responses (particularly if they're formatted distinctly) probably shouldn't be using email as part of their job because they lack the necessary mental faculties. (I've given up with my strongly-held beliefs about plain text email. I still send plain text by default but I grudgingly reply with HTML / rich text if an email started that way.)
    - zenoprax 4mo ago
      I've never heard of people having difficulty with inline replies before. Show them how to configure `sed 's/> /You said /g'` to run on all their incoming email... (I use the same plain text email strategy)
jaffa2 4mo ago
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 4mo ago
  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 4mo ago
    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.
  - jaffa2 4mo ago
alentred 4mo ago
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.
- conductr 4mo ago
  I’ve set my work calendar to auto rejects invitations without an agenda. If you can randomly steal 30 minutes of my time, you will be required to at least give me some minimal context as to why. The rejection note simply says, “please include an agenda”
- BeetleB 4mo ago
  > 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". Ha! When I was in grad school, we had a brilliant French student in our team. He did his MS, and decided halfway he hated the US (understandable at the time) and would return to Europe for the PhD. When he started applying for positions, he would just keep cursing. When I asked what was wrong, he said he'd gotten used to the (more) direct American approach, and was finding it burdensome to write formal, sycophantic emails to people in France.
xlii 4mo ago
Dear Aunt Bee, Thank you for the sweater. https://tinyurl.com/z9m89k2z https://tinyurl.com/z9m89k2z
- al_borland 4mo ago
  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.
- Insimwytim 4mo ago
  No reason to post shortened URL instead of this: https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writing_ruined_me_as_a_letter_writer/ https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...
  - xlii 4mo ago
    It has spoilers in it :)
realityfactchex 4mo ago
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) My boss taught me this. Because people just don't read long emails. Simple as. Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails? 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.
- stronglikedan 4mo ago
  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.
  - bradley13 4mo ago
    Disagree. Way too many modes of communication, which is endlessly irritating. If you want to send me a message at work, email is the common denominator.
    - dijit 4mo ago
      Always super interesting to see how "powerful people" communicate. big tech CEOs and major politicians use email almost as if it's an instant messenger: short, informal, to the point. I guess it kinda bites them in the ass because the way I know this is via email leaks or subpoenas... But it does mean that people can use whatever clients they like, and they can be across multiple organisations without weirdly expensive plans and administrators bridging instances or what have you.
      - deleted 4mo ago
        [deleted]
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
dijksterhuis 4mo ago
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.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
apparent 4mo ago
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 4mo ago
  Also, strictly one question per email - otherwise only the first will be answered and any others ignored!
  - Insimwytim 4mo ago
    There should be some process that punishes those, who does that.
  - apparent 4mo ago
    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 4mo ago
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?
loloquwowndueo 4mo ago
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.
- bartread 4mo ago
  > humans will forget to replace the placeholders I think you're right. Or people screw up the placeholder content and call you by the wrong name, wrong job title, wrong company, whatever (off by 1 errors in some columns in their automation sheet?). It's already happening with outreach messages on LinkedIn. Gets an instant block.
BeetleB 4mo ago
> We write emails so the reader can understand the point in seconds, decide quickly, and forward the message without extra explanation. I stopped reading right there. He's plain wrong about much (the majority?) of the world.
tempestn 4mo ago
The thing I've been struggling with recently is how to sign off. When "Thanks" isn't called for, I always feel awkward using any of the standard sign-offs, like "Cheers", "Best", "Regards"... I'm somewhat leaning toward just using Thanks when it makes sense, and if it doesn't, then just "-Myname" is probably fine.
dlcarrier 4mo ago
Do not use email for long back and forth… I'd much rather something be a few email messages than a phone meeting.
skrebbel 4mo ago
This seems to be specifically about emailing colleagues. Does anyone even do that anymore?
- jaffa2 4mo ago
  Yes. How do you do it otherwise?
  - skrebbel 4mo ago
    Slack, Teams, etc
    - jaffa2 4mo ago
      Sounds horrendous. Seriously though thats a different type of communication though? Can you host slack on prem?
    - frugalmail 4mo ago
      IMO direct messages, using people's names in messages, or @them is a disruption and should be reserved for needing one. I hate being deep in work, and then being disrupted for something that could have easily been put in a channel that I could look at later. Turning off notifications would mean muting people that are more respectful and might have a legitimate reason to disrupt you.
m000 4mo ago
Personal rule: Whatever you are asking (question or action), make it easy to spot. Place it either at the start or the end of its paragraph. Never ask >1 things in a paragraph, to make responding inline easier. This is especially important in multi-recipient emails, where different people need to address different issues.
clktmr 4mo ago
Hard disagree. I still consider this an example of a very well written email https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23961036 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23961036 Well it certainly depends on the recipient, but I will often take some time to make the email personal.
C0ldSmi1e 4mo ago
Is there anyone making an agent skill for it?
TeamDman 4mo ago
Important formatting has been lost on this page in section 14.

97 points by speckx 4mo ago

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.

bibimsz 4mo ago

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.

gumby 4mo ago

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

EvanAnderson 4mo ago

I feel like incorporating the BLUF[0] strategy has helped my emails be more effective. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication)

zenoprax 4mo ago
This was such an improvement to mine as well. Lots of strange advice in this thread about "one sentence/question per email" and other arbitrary terseness. Just use a messaging system for single-thread async communication. Writing the email is part of the thinking process for me so by the time I finish there is a single coherent sentence that I can cut-paste to the top with the rationale/evidence/etc organized below it. If the one-liner is enough they can skip the rest (which I needed to write anyway regardless) and if they need more detail they don't have to ask. Some other practices I've picked up over the years: Responses should always be inline between relevant quotes rather than the default of hiding the original at the bottom. Remove quotes that don't matter. My favourite responses are a simple "Agreed." after a long quoted paragraph of justification. In general the email chain should get shorter with each reply otherwise it suggests that the topic is either too complex or insufficiently defined. It also gives some sense that it will eventually end! Write subject lines that make searching/filtering easy to do later rather than something to catch the recipient's attention.
- EvanAnderson 4mo ago
  > Writing the email is part of the thinking process for me... Same here. > Responses should always be inline between relevant quotes rather than the default of hiding the original at the bottom. This is highly polarizing. As you can tell I also like inline replies. I grew up using BBSs and inline replies were common. It seemed so natural. Then Outlook came around and top-posting became the norm. I have gotten some scathing criticism from higher-ups for inline responses (along with some scant praise). I have been told, repeatedly, that inline responses are confusing. Personally, I think anybody confused by inline responses (particularly if they're formatted distinctly) probably shouldn't be using email as part of their job because they lack the necessary mental faculties. (I've given up with my strongly-held beliefs about plain text email. I still send plain text by default but I grudgingly reply with HTML / rich text if an email started that way.)
  - zenoprax 4mo ago
    I've never heard of people having difficulty with inline replies before. Show them how to configure `sed 's/> /You said /g'` to run on all their incoming email... (I use the same plain text email strategy)

jaffa2 4mo ago

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 4mo ago
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 4mo ago
  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.
- jaffa2 4mo ago

alentred 4mo ago

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.

conductr 4mo ago
I’ve set my work calendar to auto rejects invitations without an agenda. If you can randomly steal 30 minutes of my time, you will be required to at least give me some minimal context as to why. The rejection note simply says, “please include an agenda”
BeetleB 4mo ago
> 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". Ha! When I was in grad school, we had a brilliant French student in our team. He did his MS, and decided halfway he hated the US (understandable at the time) and would return to Europe for the PhD. When he started applying for positions, he would just keep cursing. When I asked what was wrong, he said he'd gotten used to the (more) direct American approach, and was finding it burdensome to write formal, sycophantic emails to people in France.

xlii 4mo ago

Dear Aunt Bee, Thank you for the sweater. https://tinyurl.com/z9m89k2z https://tinyurl.com/z9m89k2z

al_borland 4mo ago
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.
Insimwytim 4mo ago
No reason to post shortened URL instead of this: https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writing_ruined_me_as_a_letter_writer/ https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...
- xlii 4mo ago
  It has spoilers in it :)

realityfactchex 4mo ago

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) My boss taught me this. Because people just don't read long emails. Simple as. Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails? 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.

stronglikedan 4mo ago
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.
- bradley13 4mo ago
  Disagree. Way too many modes of communication, which is endlessly irritating. If you want to send me a message at work, email is the common denominator.
  - dijit 4mo ago
    Always super interesting to see how "powerful people" communicate. big tech CEOs and major politicians use email almost as if it's an instant messenger: short, informal, to the point. I guess it kinda bites them in the ass because the way I know this is via email leaks or subpoenas... But it does mean that people can use whatever clients they like, and they can be across multiple organisations without weirdly expensive plans and administrators bridging instances or what have you.
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]

dijksterhuis 4mo ago

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.

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

apparent 4mo ago

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 4mo ago
Also, strictly one question per email - otherwise only the first will be answered and any others ignored!
- Insimwytim 4mo ago
  There should be some process that punishes those, who does that.
- apparent 4mo ago
  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 4mo ago

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?

loloquwowndueo 4mo ago

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.

bartread 4mo ago
> humans will forget to replace the placeholders I think you're right. Or people screw up the placeholder content and call you by the wrong name, wrong job title, wrong company, whatever (off by 1 errors in some columns in their automation sheet?). It's already happening with outreach messages on LinkedIn. Gets an instant block.

BeetleB 4mo ago

> We write emails so the reader can understand the point in seconds, decide quickly, and forward the message without extra explanation. I stopped reading right there. He's plain wrong about much (the majority?) of the world.

tempestn 4mo ago

The thing I've been struggling with recently is how to sign off. When "Thanks" isn't called for, I always feel awkward using any of the standard sign-offs, like "Cheers", "Best", "Regards"... I'm somewhat leaning toward just using Thanks when it makes sense, and if it doesn't, then just "-Myname" is probably fine.

dlcarrier 4mo ago

Do not use email for long back and forth… I'd much rather something be a few email messages than a phone meeting.

skrebbel 4mo ago

This seems to be specifically about emailing colleagues. Does anyone even do that anymore?

jaffa2 4mo ago
Yes. How do you do it otherwise?
- skrebbel 4mo ago
  Slack, Teams, etc
  - jaffa2 4mo ago
    Sounds horrendous. Seriously though thats a different type of communication though? Can you host slack on prem?
  - frugalmail 4mo ago
    IMO direct messages, using people's names in messages, or @them is a disruption and should be reserved for needing one. I hate being deep in work, and then being disrupted for something that could have easily been put in a channel that I could look at later. Turning off notifications would mean muting people that are more respectful and might have a legitimate reason to disrupt you.

m000 4mo ago

Personal rule: Whatever you are asking (question or action), make it easy to spot. Place it either at the start or the end of its paragraph. Never ask >1 things in a paragraph, to make responding inline easier. This is especially important in multi-recipient emails, where different people need to address different issues.

clktmr 4mo ago

Hard disagree. I still consider this an example of a very well written email https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23961036 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23961036 Well it certainly depends on the recipient, but I will often take some time to make the email personal.

C0ldSmi1e 4mo ago

Is there anyone making an agent skill for it?

TeamDman 4mo ago

Important formatting has been lost on this page in section 14.