This article is an excellent primer on sending good emails, and on good habits for managing emails. I receive a LOT of mail, at least a thousand emails that I'm expected to read, file, respond to, or do something about, every day. A lot of the email that just falls off my radar is stuff from strangers that is too hard to respond to or too hard to make easy sense of. This article reflects the kinds of things I try to do when I send email out to busy strangers and ask for their attention, and is the kind of guidelines that would make my life a lot easier.
You're probably sending e-mail because you're deep in thought about something. Your reader is too, only they're deep in thought about something else. Even worse, in a multi-person conversation, messages and replies may arrive out of order. And no, it doesn't help to include the entire past conversation when you reply; it's rude to force someone else to wade through ten screens of messages because you're too lazy to give them context. So, start off your messages with enough context to orient your reader.
BAD E-MAIL:
To: Billy Franklin
From: Robert Payne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity driveYes, apples are definitely the answer.
GOOD E-MAIL:
To: Billy Franklin
From: Robert Payne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity drive.You asked if we want apple pie. Yes, apples are definitely the answer.
(Thanks, Cindy!)
