Have you ever spent intensive hours on an email and gotten a perplexing response?
Then, infuriated, we start typing "as per my last email..." and start a chain of regrettable events.
Despite the latest and greatest tools in digital writing, we still can have trouble making that impact with our readers when writing work emails, crafting slides or creating word documents.
Inspired by a great conversation in a coaching-session this week, I thought I’d summarize some ideas in an easy-to-remember list for creating highly effective written messages that are easy for your reader to digest, hit the mark and get results.
1. Complete – Make sure your message covers all the points you want to mention and responds to all parts of the question or prompt.
2. Correct – No surprises, it’s important to check your spelling, grammar, and flow so you can make a great impression.
3. Concise – Say more with less. Make the message as complete as possible with the fewest possible words.
4. Clear – Read it over, read it aloud. Do you stop at parts? If you do, that part is more complex than it needs to be.
5. Convincing – If you’re trying to change someone’s perspective, does this message do the trick? Why or why not?
6. Conscious – Always be mindful, put yourself in the audience’s shoes. How would they react to each part of this message? What might you change to get your point across better?
So the next time you need to start a message saying “as per my last email”, give the above six rules a glance and you might just get the outcome you were hoping for.
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