Better emails – Text for reading comprehension
How many emails did you receive yesterday? I got 49 and sent 31. That seems a lot to me, but it’s not very much compared to other people. According to a survey, the average office worker gets 100 emails today and has 199 unread emails in their inbox. I’m pleased to say that at the moment I only have four. Clearly most of us couldn’t do our jobs today without email, unless of course we work in production. Apparently 280 billion emails get sent every day, yet 79% of these messages are never opened. Maybe if we could write better emails we wouldn’t need to send or read so many, and our lives will be less stressful.
The first thing to think about when you write an email is the subject line. Ideally this should be between 6 and 10 words. Why? Because many of us read our emails on our phones, so short subject lines are better. As readers, we often scan over emails and miss important information. Therefore, when we are writing an email, we should do everything we can to make our message clear. Do you know the acronym kiss? It normally stands for keep it short and simple. Generally, this is a good motto for email writing. if I sentence has more than 20 words, make two sentences out of it. Your email will be easier to understand. Equally a paragraph should have no more than 100 words; and think about using bullet points to express your main ideas. This will help your reader find your ideas on the page
Maybe you send emails if only one or two lines. if that’s all that’s needed then fine. As the saying goes, time is money and you’re showing respect of your readers time by not writing more than is necessary. However, we must also keep in mind that emails are an important tool for building business relationships. I use email to thank people, to praise and to give compliments; and I like it when others do the same for me. Or maybe a short email is a chance to exchange some small talk and find out how a person is doing.
Have you ever been upset by the content of an email? For many of us the answer to that question is yes. If that’s the case, it’s worth remembering that written words are often misunderstood. You can’t see someone’s body language in an email, and it’s very difficult to hear the tone of their voice. That’s why people include emojis in their messages. Some people say that doing this can make you seem less competent, but in the right situation an emoji can be the equivalent of an email smile.
I’d suggest that the golden rule of emailing is to think about the person you’re writing to. Put yourself in their shoes. Is the content of your email relevant to them? Have you communicated your message clearly? Would they appreciate some small talk; and does your email help develop your professional or personal relationship? If you can answer yes to some all of those questions, then go ahead and press send.