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Subject:Re: e-mail / social skills thank you From:Jan Boomsliter <boom -at- CADENCE -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 25 Sep 1995 07:11:16 -0700
Re your quest for suggestions on effective email:
- Put your question or thesis up top. If I don't know what you want or what
you're talking about in the first paragraph, I'll probably skip it.
- I definitely won't go to a second screen to find out what you have to say.
Therefore, if your response follows the re-post, I'll never get to it.
- If you want a personal response, put my name in the subject line; with 100
and more messages per day, I have to sift and winnow until I have time to play.
Sometimes that's days later (I like this list, but I have to work first,
drat.)
- I don't want to see your personal postings. (Why in the world do I receive
mail that begins, "Steve, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner ...."?)
Re your no. 2, email has made me a better think-on-my-feet writer. Way back
when I began, I was horrified sometimes to see how what I had written sounded
in the cold of another day. The lessons continue.
jb
======================================
On Sep 24, 11:17am, Richard G Harris wrote:
> Subject: e-mail / social skills thank you
> My post yesterday generated quite a stir -- exactly as I hoped.
> There have been wome well-thought-out responses. As you may have guessed,
> cocktail-party one-to-one communication isn't my thing either.
> Regarding e-mail though, and I'm not talking about lists (they're
> wonderful), I have a couple of pet peeves though.
> 1. Many people simply don't respond; this is infuriating and applies to
> voice mail as well. I would guess the right combination of face-to-face,
> phone calls, and e-mail probably yields the best result. Anyone have a
> winning combination?
> 2. E-mail is usually easy to send. One result is that very often people
> respond immediately, and don't think about what they're saying (typing).
> Sometimes the response doesn't seem to have anything to do with the
> original question. Other than perhaps keeping each question short and
> to the point, any suggestions?
> Dick Harris
> rgh -at- world -dot- std -dot- com
>-- End of excerpt from Richard G Harris
