That one piece of feedback from Susan in accounting changed how I write emails

Last month my manager forwarded an email I wrote to Susan and she wrote back saying 'you bury the point in paragraph 3.' She was right. Now I put the action item in the first sentence and keep it to 5 lines max. Has anyone else had a coworker give them a simple tip that totally shifted their workflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric7238d ago

Three years ago my boss told me I write like a suspense novelist. She meant burying the lead, not in a good way. Did you rewrite any old emails once you realized Susan was right?

felix_lane998d ago

Susan's advice is good but the real trick is knowing who you're writing to. Different people need different formats. I work with a guy who skips everything except bolded text. If I write a normal email he ignores it. But if I just put the key point in bold with no fluff he responds in five minutes. So the bigger lesson is not just putting the point first but also paying attention to how each person reads emails. Some people scan. Some people read every word. You have to adjust for that.