Email Survival Skills: Survival Tips Compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2010 & 2013 (2015)

Writing Clear Emails: Illumination

Excellent illumination is critical for an overnight outing. When the sun goes down you will need not only a fire, but a lantern, flashlight or headlamp.

Illumination applies to the writing aspects of email. You illuminate your reader in a variety of ways. Excellent illumination in your email makes the message easy to understand, and easy to write a response to and send back.

There are 4 steps to illumination in your email:

1. Write a great subject line that summarizes the content of the email. Consider the difference in these headlines:

“Urgent – Read Now” Vs. “Email Accounts Shut Down on the 1st if No Response to this Email”

Which would you open and quickly reply to with the requested information? The second subject line, of course.

2. Write your email so the bottom line – your request – is positioned in the subject line and/or the first line of your email. To correspond to the subject line above, your first line would say, “In order to comply with new company email guidelines, we need you to respond by the 1st with the following information. Failure to do so will result in your account being suspended.”

In your following paragraphs you can list the information needed and explain more about the new policies.

3. Organize your message in short, easy-to-read sentences. No run on sentences or worse yet, run on paragraphs!

4. Use bullet points or numbered lists which make the information easy to grasp. For a busy person scanning through a hundred emails, easy to read means easy to understand and return.

Following these simple suggestions of illumination will help your reader quickly comprehend what you need and will ensure a faster response from them. People will actually read your emails.

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