It amazes me just how easy it is to obfuscate facts and the message you want to give in emails. I’m one who recognises that I can sometimes be too long, I struggle with giving too much facts which will stop someone needing another to come back to me with more questions!! Its a hard line to judge.

I’ve always been brought up with the fundamentals: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How .. I nicked named them the six Ws (saying as ‘how’ ends in W, it became the last and sixth in the line). If you can define these you know what its needing to be said.

Who are you writing to, what are you needing to say, where is it to go or be done, why is it important, when does it need to be done and how is it going to be achieved. Once you’ve got that sorted it all down to revision and rework. Here is a great article in how to do this succinctly.

How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It by David Silverman

I particularly liked the following points:

1. Delete redundancies. Say it once. That’s enough. If you’re repetitive, the reader will stop reading and start skimming. (Like you probably just did.)

8. Delete anything written in the heat of emotion. Will this sentence show them who’s been right about the hamburger buns since the beginning? Yes? Cut it.

9. Shorten. Remember the reader struggling to digest your message on the run — a BlackBerry or an iPhone gets about 40 words per screen. What looks short on your desktop monitor is an epic epistle on their mobile device.

Here’s to saying what needs to be done in as few concise words as possible. Get the job done and stop making us read long winded emails!

yes I’m paying attention to this lesson too!