Write It Well

“Most people could cut their email output by ten percent or so and maintain or even increase their productivity,” writes Art Carden. Messages to cut:

• Questions you could answer for yourself. See what Google has to say before you send an e-mail that makes you look silly and wastes time.
• Responses to e-mails that CC you. Often, these e-mails are just informative, and don’t need an answer from you.
• Forwards. Yes, it’s a noble cause. So why don’t you take the time to compose your own personal, thought-provoking e-mail, and send THAT to your friends? They’ll appreciate it much more.

E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide has more great tips on boosting your e-mail effectiveness.

Good grammar rules make our jobs easier: they help us communicate clearly and professionally. But there are many mistaken grammar notions that do nothing but get in the way and make us feel insecure about our writing. Philip Corbett, the deputy news editor at The New York Times, points out some of these grammar hobgoblins this week in After Deadline. Here are two:

• None: singular AND plural. Under the mistaken impression that none was a contraction for “not one,” many grammar advocates insist we use none with singular verbs. Actually, none has been both singular and plural since its birth as the word nan in Old English. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage notes that King Alfred the Great used it as a plural back in A.D. 888.
• Beginning with but or and. Conjunctions like but or and give us a short way to say “however” or “in addition” when opening a sentence. However and in addition often sound awkward and overly formal. And none of the major style guides have a problem with conjunctions starting a sentence.

According to Xobni, a San Francisco-based start-up that has developed an Outlook add-on that helps you manage your e-mail, by 2009, workers are expected to spend 40 percent of their time managing e-mail. Xobni’s goal is to make this time as efficient and painless as possible. We were invited to be part of the beta and we’re eagerly trying it out. In fact, we’re now spending about 50 percent of our time managing e-mail because we’re trying to figure out just what the software does. Thoughts thus far? Well, other than the fact we now spend more time with our email, we like the graphs showing us when people send us email. Helps us know when we should be out of the office to avoid certain people. Threaded conversations are interesting, including a summary of all attachments you’ve ever sent, by contact. We’ll check back in a few weeks with our full evaluation. In the mean time, if you want an invite let us know. We have a few to give out.

And don’t forget, the ability to write clear, concise, compelling e-mail messages becomes more important every day. Write It Well’s business writing book, E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, offers tips and tools for using your e-mail time more efficiently.