Had a boss tell me my emails were too wordy back in 2019

She said 'nobody reads past the first sentence, get to the point.' I started leading with the action item or answer right at the top instead of burying it. Has anyone else had to completely rewrite how they communicate after one piece of feedback?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_tessa1mo ago

2000 emails in my inbox right now and I'll read every single word if someone actually writes something worth reading. @sanchez.mary that study probably came from the same people who think Twitter taught us how to communicate properly. Trimming the fat is fine, but treating everyone like they have the attention span of a goldfish is how we end up with nothing but subject lines and bullet points.

sanchez.mary1mo ago

I actually read something from a business communication study that said the average person only scans about 20% of an email before deciding if it matters. So your boss was onto something, even if it felt harsh at the time. I had a similar wake up call when I started noticing how often I'd delete long messages without even reading them in my own inbox. It's weirdly freeing once you get used to just putting the main point right upfront.

jamief671mo ago

So what happens when the subject line and those first 20% don't have enough context and someone misses a key detail? I've seen people delete emails halfway through because they thought they got the gist, only to find out later they skipped over a deadline or a request buried in the middle. The scanning study might be true for most people, but that's an argument against lazy reading habits, not for writing shorter emails. If you trim everything down to bullet points, you're just training people to stop paying attention entirely.