Email is a toughie. Hard to nuance, hard to bring to a graceful conclusion, hard to know if you should even send, etc. Professional copywriters may understand this better than others, but I think we all struggle.
So, it was with great pleasure that I recently read an article by Ross McCammon. Mr. McCammon is articulate, subversive, and funny, and he’s a powerful advocate for brevity and clarity in email communications.
He suggests that you pretend you’re Robert DeNiro when you respond to an email. Be brief. Be brusque. And don’t worry too much about the effect. After all, “… brusqueness is a key part of the engine of commerce.” If someone asks if you can do something, say “yes.” If they want to know when you can meet for lunch, say “1:30.” These one-word replies respect everyone’s time, and they get the job done. Are they curt? Of course. And for that reason, there are times where it makes a heck of a lot more sense to pick up the phone or walk down the hall to someone’s cubicle to have an actual conversation. How revolutionary is that?
I’ll leave it to you to read Mr. McCammon’s article, which includes some great tips on doing a better job with email. Where I disagree with him is in his injunction that your email signature line should “not involve words of wisdom.” I’ve seen some humdingers in my time, but I don’t intend to remove Clint Eastwood’s exhortation to “Respect your efforts. Respect yourself” from mine.
Leave a Comment