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Do you prefer long or short Emails?

ULEWZ

ULEWZ

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I get a lot of emails at work and spend a considerable amount of time going through them, so for me, short and sweet is preferred. When I send out an email, since I deal with some customers that have a very short attention span, I try to limit my questions to a few, very specific items. I find I have a better chance of getting a response that way.

I have a co-worker that tends to write a book when sending emails to these very same low attention span customers, and gets disturbed when all her questions are not answered.

So, what is your preference with email length, long and verbose, or short and sweet?
 
Short and sweet. I much prefer to be communicated quickly & precisely, I tend to get wordy with replies.
 
short.

I have 2 people in my office that write novels!
 
The number of "short and sweet" E-mails I'm called upon to write at work in a very small portion of my total E-mail output. I work on multi-year, multi-disciplinary projects collaborating with people all over the country. A typical exchange of E-mail has several paragraphs of text per message and one or more attachment of marked up document, spreadsheets, etc.

I had one colleague, now retired fortunately, who absolutely refused to respond to any E-mail that couldn't fit in one or at most two short paragraphs. Any attempt by the rest of us to include her in discussions would inevitably be replied to by a phone call. She said, "I can't track such a long E-mail, tell me what it is you wanted to talk about". She was NOT the most popular person on the team!
 
As short as can be fruitful. That being said, sometimes, it just has to be long and drawn out.
 
Short, get to the point and be done.
 
Short and sweet
 
Here is what I want emails to say:

Dan,

I just signed off on your contract.

Thanks,

Joe Customer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ULEWZ said:
I get a lot of emails at work and spend a considerable amount of time going through them, so for me, short and sweet is preferred. When I send out an email, since I deal with some customers that have a very short attention span, I try to limit my questions to a few, very specific items. I find I have a better chance of getting a response that way.

I have a co-worker that tends to write a book when sending emails to these very same low attention span customers, and gets disturbed when all her questions are not answered.

So, what is your preference with email length, long and verbose, or short and sweet?
Click to expand...

TL;DR :alien:
 
There is clarity in verbosity, which assists in the reduction of inaccuracy. Email communications that are longer contain more information and convey the intended information transfer in a manner consistent with the original intent.

j/k

shorter is always better. If you can't communicate a thought in a few sentences, rethink your thought.
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
The number of "short and sweet" E-mails I'm called upon to write at work in a very small portion of my total E-mail output. I work on multi-year, multi-disciplinary projects collaborating with people all over the country. A typical exchange of E-mail has several paragraphs of text per message and one or more attachment of marked up document, spreadsheets, etc.

I had one colleague, now retired fortunately, who absolutely refused to respond to any E-mail that couldn't fit in one or at most two short paragraphs. Any attempt by the rest of us to include her in discussions would inevitably be replied to by a phone call. She said, "I can't track such a long E-mail, tell me what it is you wanted to talk about". She was NOT the most popular person on the team!
Click to expand...

I too have to communicate in lengthy emails for a variety of reasons. What I do, and ask other to do, is start the email with a summary of the content.

i.e.

This email will lay out the details of portions X, Y and Z for project 123. There are actionable items for Joe, Mary and Rob.

Then get into the details.

I took this from a presentation style I learned:

Tell them what you are going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you told them
 
Short and to the point, but if the subject needs a longer reply to explain important details, I am fine as long as paragraphs are used.
 
millsan1 said:
I too have to communicate in lengthy emails for a variety of reasons. What I do, and ask other to do, is start the email with a summary of the content.

i.e.

This email will lay out the details of portions X, Y and Z for project 123. There are actionable items for Joe, Mary and Rob.

Then get into the details.

I took this from a presentation style I learned:

Tell them what you are going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you told them
Click to expand...

This is good advice, and I will take it a step further: add step numbers to questions. That way, they can say, for question 2, bla bla bla.
I would guess none of this is good advice for lawyers that write to confuse for a living. Ever read an EULA?
 
In my work place long rambling emails get ignored and often cause confusion. Composing short messages that convey a great deal of information is a daily challenge. I find myself using introductions, bullets, and summaries to keep messages short and on point.

What drives me crazy are attachments, if I had a dime for every time I’ve is seen poor document controls I could retire.
 
Short and sweet.

Economy of words always.

Otherwise, pick up the phone.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Any communication should be in the shortest form necessary to convey the intended message IMO.
 
If you do not reveal the intended information within the first two sentences, I will automatically delete your email.
 
Only as long as it needs to be. Loose language is bad.
 
I have seen some forum posts on this site that made me wonder how long their emails would be.
 
As short as possible!
 
I prefer no emails, but if I must receive them, then I want them as short as possible.
 
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