1. Use Bullet Points to Summarize
One of the most crucial things to remember when writing a long email is that the recipient will likely skim through it. In doing so, they may miss important information or questions because there was simply too much to read.
When writing a long email, you want to ensure you make it easy for the recipient to glance over yet still find the key takeaways—in other words, you want to be precise in your emails. That way, they get the information they need, and you’re likely to get a more thoughtful answer.
Each of the tips in this article will help you achieve a more skimmable, to-the-point email—especially using bullet points.
Writing information out in point form doesn’t mean you can’t be conversational. You can be in other parts of your email, like the greeting and sign-off. However, summarizing the information into points will get the message across quickly and effectively.
Rather than including every detail, identify the key information from your message and avoid being wordy. The recipient doesn’t need a play-by-play of each topic, they only need the main points.
2. Use Bold for Important Points
Using all caps in an email isn't professional. However, you can give your reader a nod in the right direction with some subtle bolding. Of course, you don’t want to do this for everything, but if there’s a certain piece of information you want to ensure they see like a date, reminder, or action, bold it.
The example only uses bold for the titles and two phrases, both of which the sender wants the reader to take action on—looking for further information in the meeting minutes and not forgetting a meeting. If he’s skimming the email, these are more likely to catch his attention, and he may read the rest for context.
Since it’s only a subtle change in text, it’s less likely the recipient will feel as though you’re shouting, as they may with all caps.
3. Break the Email Into Topics With Headings
Adding headings to your emails may sound a bit like sending a novel to your recipient, but it doesn’t mean there needs to be a ton of information under each one. Doing this simply helps them get through the email quicker if there’s certain information they’re looking for, or they need to refer to later.
By putting the heading in bold and using line breaks between each section, you can put space between each section, making it easier to read through—much like any other document.
Using headings is helpful if you have multiple topics you want to cover that don’t warrant separate emails—for example, a daily overview or a progress update.
4. Use Different Formatting for Quotes
If you need to relay information exactly as someone else wrote it, make subtle changes to the formatting to help separate it from your own narrative. This way there’s no confusion as to where your message ends and the other begins.
Quotation marks could do the trick, of course, but if you already have a lot of text before and after, it could create a long paragraph that's less desirable to read and more challenging to pull information from at a glance.
Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to formatting text in emails, you may want to avoid the use of multiple fonts and colors as this can make an email look unprofessional.
5. Save Questions Until the End
Have you ever asked multiple questions in an email and gotten answers to maybe half? This can happen even in the shortest of emails or messages.
Try saving your questions to the end and keeping them short and to the point. Not only will this help the reader to see them, but they also won’t forget what you’ve asked along the way because you’re not presenting any more information afterward.
What’s more, is they may send you a response that answers the questions clearly in the order you asked them.
It may sound silly, but think of all the emails, texts, messages, and digital media that’s presented to you daily. It’s easy to get distracted with email overload or have one piece of information stand out over the other.
Extra Tip—Be Specific in Your Subject Line
This extra tip works for all emails in general. By being specific in your subject line, you’re helping the recipient in many ways—they’ll know exactly what it’s about, they can prioritize it, and they can find it again later if they need to refer to it.
For example, you can use words like follow up, question, reminder, update, or report to let them know the type of email. If it’s about a specific meeting or project, state the name. If it’s a recurring email, include the date.
Sending an email with the subject follow up alone doesn’t make it sound very clickable or important, especially when your recipient may have a few other emails with the same title in their inbox.
You can even let people know in the subject line if your message is urgent, but be sure to reserve that for matters that actually are.
Communication Is Key
While some may advise against sending long emails, sometimes you just need to. The best thing you can do for your recipient is stick to the point and ensure they can skim through. Not only will it help them find the information they need initially, but it will also help them refer to it again later.
Next time you need to send a long email, why not try one or more of these tips and see how it goes.
Source: makeuseof
