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Composing better emails (with examples from the software development world)

Lazarus Lazaridis on October 08, 2019

Email communication is not my favorite but since I can't avoid it, I am trying to compose messages in a way that I think it makes it easier for bot...
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Fred Heath

Some very helpful tips here. May I add another one I learned the hard way after working in remote teams: unless you're absolutely, positively sure that your email will be read only by people in your timezone, use UTC times, e.g "let's chat at 13:00 UTC"

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Lazarus Lazaridis

That is correct, Thank you!

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Michael Tharrington

Really good article, but more cats next time please! 😸

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Lazarus Lazaridis

Thanks! More cats? That will not be a problem at all :D

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Michiel Hendriks

When I'm writing an email that is longer than a paragraph I generally start with an executive summary. Because most people want to be executives and don't read the email. So, important stuff first. After that comes the detailed information and background.

Then when people respond I can simply refer to my original email, which they didn't read fully, but does contain the answer to their question.

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Josh Ransley • Edited

Some good tips here. Some may seem over the top for an email, but they mean you get the point across with fewer (or no) follow up emails.

I often include full dates and 24-hour times in emails, just so it's clear what I'm discussing, with no ambiguity.

The examples are very helpful too, they make it much easier to imagine how to use your tips. Nice.

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Lazarus Lazaridis • Edited

Thank you Josh!

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Mirosław Farajewicz • Edited

Superb article. Bad vs Good examples are always easy to understand.

For non-native English speakers I can also recommend two tools I usually use when composing mail:

  • Grammarly is well known Chrome extension, and allows us to quickly solve many issues with our text
  • hemingwayapp.com/ - this I use only for longer text - similar to Grammarly but focuses more on readability not grammar

Also, the rules mentioned in this article are pretty useful: medium.com/swlh/write-to-express-n...

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Lazarus Lazaridis

Thank you for the feedback!

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Patrick Tingen

I wasn't planning on 'liking' your post, but then I saw your cats...

No, just kidding. Very good and readable post. I really love the fact that you added examples. Posts on better mailing behavior often lack good examples, thanks!

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Lazarus Lazaridis

Haha, thank you very much Patrick!

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TuWang

Another point I recently realize: avoid sharing too much unnecessary details(like my inner thoughts or concerns regarding the subject). That becomes noises to the audience.

Great post ;)

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iridakos profile image
Lazarus Lazaridis

Good point, thanks for your feedback!

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Daniel Barwikowski

Good tips. I will try to follow them in my emails. Will see the outcome :)

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Lazarus Lazaridis

Thank you Daniel, I hope they help :)

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Ian Wijma

This is super helpful with communication in general. Thanks for this post!

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Lazarus Lazaridis

Thank you!