« "Keep off the grass:" A tip on translating text | Main | Misusing "Zen," or, "Inigo Montoya rides again!" »

10 more on e-mail

Every month, internet users send 30 million e-mail messages. Approximately three of them are effective.

OK, maybe I overestimate the number of poorly written e-mails, but not by much. What can we do about it?

Last summer, I posted my downloadable article, “10 Tips for Effective E-mail.” Now, Matthew Stibbe gives us “Ten laws for better email*.”

Yes, some of Stibbe’s ideas overlap mine, but it’s a fresh take on an evergreen topic. I really like his number 1 law:

Email is about the reader, not the writer. Don’t think about what you have to say. Think about what the reader needs to hear. There’s nothing more tedious than an email that starts out with 200 words of self-justification when all it needs is a single sentence containing a question.

 Check both articles out, and put the advice to use TODAY!

*You say email, and I say e-mail. Some people hyphenate it (but I think more people are starting to use the un-hyphenated form) and some don’t. I don’t much care whether you put in the hyphen or not, just be consistent.

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 01:21PM by Registered CommenterRoy Jacobsen in | CommentsPost a Comment | References1 Reference

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

References (1)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>