How a geek writes better emails

Adarsh Pandi is a developer who knows how to write great emails. He explains his technique in the curiously headlined Using Writing Smells to Refactor Your Email.

Pandi treats crafting emails like writing a piece of code. He starts by looking at the goals of an email which he says are:

• Get the reader to read the most important thing
• Get them to respond quickly or do something quickly

Then works to make them simple, easier to respond to and more likely to trigger an action.

He then works through a few details, such as keeping sentences short and simple. He effectively develops a simple version of what us old hands teach every young journalist when they first start writing.