Please write intelligible e-mails
Sometimes I get quite fierce headaches form e-mails that you get lost into.
Please:
- for the sake of your addressee,
- for the sake of time,
- for the sake of brevity,
- for the sake of understanding and
- last but not least for the sake of yourself,
choose your words with care and thought. Let people know what you request them to give you or do. Have a point. Write with authority.
Here are some examples how to do it:
E-mail examples
Yours sincerely,
Create music with words
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen.
I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.
Gary Provost, quoted in Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools
TBC…
Commencing my Monday with (more than) five words,
AWARDS
Just English 