How to Email Busy People

Re:How to Email Busy People by puredanger on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @01:58PM (#2533459)

I've had some success with sending email that has a short and long version (or if you include the subject itself, 3 levels). Ask your main question in the first sentence or two, enough to provide context, detail, and what you want.

At the end say "[more detail below if needed]". Draw a line in the email ===== and include more detail below that they can dip into if necessary.

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Re:How to Email Busy People by sangfroid on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @02:45PM (#2533634)

It's nice to see that a journalism degree is universally applicable.

What you describe is basically an inverse pyramid news article.

Hook Lead Background News

Putting it into 5 sentences is where the art comes in...

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Re:How to Email Busy People by lsc on Tuesday May 10, 2011 @06:18PM (#2534301)

I do this too, especially when emailing people who I believe are unable or unwilling to read a long email. It feels weird and unnatural. I'm not sure if the people I'm sending to appreciate it, but I know I can very easily become very verbose, and which details are important is very context sensitive and sometimes non-obvious.

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