Long-time readers know that I am a huge fan of Merlin’s excellent 43 folders blog. In this blog entry, he writes about writing sensible email messages. I especially like the sections on writing a great subject line and brevity. As he notes, “It’s completely depressing to check your email at 4:55 in the afternoon to discover a gothic novel of a message waiting for you, spilling down your screen the distance of 2 or 3 scrolling pages.”

Journalists and PR writers are familiar with the Pyramid concept of writing a news story or a press release. That holds true for email too – especially if you are dealing with a lot of emails or are writing a lot of emails. Keep it focused and keep it brief!