How To Make Your Emails Easy To Read
Want to make reading your emails easy for your recipients? You already know the drill: write clear and concise emails, duly proofread by a capable English composition software.
More than that, though, there are other factors that can go into producing emails that won’t give your readers’ fits. One area, in particular, is the layout and visual presentation of your communication.
Many people look at emails as informal pieces of writing and treat is as such. While there’s nothing wrong with a more casual, conversational writing style, there is something terribly wrong when you break the rules of sensible presentation to produce your writing. It always pays to keep in mind that you’re still writing a document – one that’s looking to communicate your ideas to somebody else.
- Never use all-capitals in your emails. We can’t think of a situation when it is appropriate, other than when you’re intentionally trying to make it hard for your reader to read through your work.
- For long emails, it is useful to use heading and sub-headings, just like a long report. For HTML emails, you can bold these headings and increase the font size for better clarity; for plain text ones, we recommend writing them in all-capital letters.
- Use bulleted and numbered lists whenever appropriate. People like skimming through emails – these things make that activity much easier.
- Avoid complex HTML layouts. Bolded words and links are fine, but doing stuff like inserting pictures in the middle of the text or adding Flash animations can blow up in your face i fthey don’t display correctly on some of your recipients’ end.