You will be able to answer three questions about your reader before writing anything longer than a few lines.
Farhan is an operations executive at a logistics firm in Tuas. A shipment of chilled goods is stuck at the port because a customs permit has a wrong product code, and he needs to tell two people: Mr Lim, the warehouse supervisor whose team will receive the containers, and Ms Tan, the director who manages the client. He writes one email to both of them. It explains the permit, the code, the agent he called, the new arrival window and the overtime the warehouse may need, and it goes out at 6pm.
Mr Lim replies within ten minutes with three questions about the dock schedule. Ms Tan replies the next morning, asking whether she needs to call the client. The answer to her question was in the email, in paragraph five.
Nothing in that email was wrong. Farhan just wrote it before deciding who it was for.
Before you write anything longer than a few lines, answer three questions about the person reading it. You can do it in your head in under a minute.
Who is reading? Their role, how senior they are, and how they will read it, whether at a desk, on a phone, or in their second language. What do they already know? A reader who was in yesterday's meeting needs different background from one who has never heard of the project. What do I need them to do or decide? Approve, reply, show up, change a plan, or simply know about something.
The third question matters most, because it tells you what goes in the first line. If the honest answer is "nothing, I just want them to know", write a short message that says so plainly. "No action needed" in the opening line lets a busy reader move on without worrying.
The same facts serve different readers in different ways. A manager usually needs the decision and the risk: what is happening, what it means for the client or the budget, and whether they need to step in. A peer who has to do the work needs the detail: which containers, which dock, what time, who to call.
For Ms Tan, the useful version of Farhan's email is three lines. "The client's chilled shipment will arrive Thursday instead of Wednesday because of a permit error, now corrected. No stock is at risk. Could you let the client know today, or would you like me to?" She knows the decision she faces and that the goods are safe, and she can act from her phone.
For Mr Lim, the useful version is mostly logistics: container numbers, the new arrival window, the dock he should hold, and the overtime question. He does not need to hear how the permit error happened.
Neither reader is more important. Each simply needs something different from the same event.
Sometimes you can't send two messages. The thread already exists, or both people need to see the same record. In that case, put the decision on top and move the detail down.
Farhan's combined email could open with the three lines for Ms Tan, followed by a heading or a clear break that reads "Details for the warehouse", and then the container list and timings for Mr Lim. If the detail runs long, it can go in an attachment, such as a one-page schedule, with a single line in the email saying where to find it. Ms Tan stops reading after the first paragraph. Mr Lim skips the opening and goes straight to what concerns him, and each gets what they need without hunting for it.
You can also name readers next to the parts that concern them: "Mr Lim, could you hold Dock 3 from 2pm Thursday?" A name in front of a request makes it hard to miss and leaves no doubt about whose job it is.
The hardest part comes next. Once you know who the reader is and what you need, some of what you wrote won't help them at all. Farhan spent an hour on the phone working out how the wrong code got onto the permit. It was hard work and he is a little proud of it, so it is tempting to include all of it.
Ask whether the paragraph helps this reader do the thing you need. For Ms Tan, the history of the permit error does not. One clause covers it: "a permit error, now corrected." If she wants the full story, she will ask, and you will have it ready. The time you spent finding something is not a reason to make someone else read it.
This is where messages written in Singapore offices tend to go long. Writers worry that a short email looks lazy, or that leaving something out looks like hiding it. In practice the opposite is true. A reader who gets a short message that answers their question trusts the writer more, because the writer has clearly thought about what they need.
The three questions take less time than the follow-up emails they prevent. They also connect directly to lesson 1.1, Say the point first, then explain it: once you know what you need from the reader, you know what your first sentence is. And they set up lesson 1.2's pyramid, because the reader decides how deep each branch should go.
Think of one message you need to send this week, ideally one where more than one person will read it or where the reader is senior to you. Before you open a draft, answer the questions for that reader, which is what the activity below asks you to do.
For one message you need to send this week, write one line each on who the reader is, what they already know and what you need from them.
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