You will be able to write a work email that the reader can act on from the subject line and first paragraph.
Look at your inbox right now and read only the subject lines. "Follow up." "Event." "Re: Re: Fwd: Updates." "Quick question." Which of those needs you today? You can't tell without opening every one, and most people don't open every one. They open the ones that look urgent and leave the rest for later, which often means never.
The subject line and the first paragraph are the only parts of an email you can count on someone reading. This lesson is about making those two parts carry the whole job.
A useful subject line tells the reader two things: what the email is about and what it needs from them, as these two versions show.
"Vendor contract" says what it's about, but not whether the reader has to do anything.
"Approval needed by Friday: vendor contract for the March event" says the topic, the action and the deadline. A manager scanning thirty subject lines between meetings knows this one is theirs and when it's due.
A few patterns cover most work email. "Approval needed by [date]: [topic]." "For your input by [date]: [topic]." "FYI, no action: [topic]." "Decision needed: [topic]." The last two are as useful as the first, because telling someone they don't need to act saves them from opening the email to check.
When a long thread changes purpose, change the subject line too. A thread called "Re: Lunch order" that has turned into a discussion about the budget will be impossible to find in a month.
Weiling is an executive at a statutory board, and she is organising a public forum. She emails her director: could you approve the venue booking for 14 March? Then, at the end, she adds that she also needs a decision on whether to invite the media, and by the way the printing vendor wants to know about the banner size.
Her director approves the venue and replies "Approved." The other two questions vanish. It isn't carelessness. The director answered the email's main point and moved on, which is what busy readers do.
One email, one main ask. If you have a second request that isn't part of the first, send it as its own email with its own subject line. It feels like more email, but each request can now be answered, forwarded and tracked on its own. "Decision needed by Wednesday: media invitations for March forum" can be found again in a search. The same question in paragraph four of an email about venues cannot.
Related points can stay together. If approving the venue also means approving the deposit, that's one ask with two parts. The test is whether one person could act on all of it in one go.
When an email goes to several people, the most common failure is a request with no owner. "Can we get the attendee list finalised by Thursday?" goes to four people, and each of them assumes one of the others will do it.
Put names next to actions.
"Hi all, for the March forum: Hui Min, could you send me the final attendee list by Thursday 5pm? Ravi, could you confirm the AV setup with the venue by Wednesday? I will circulate the run sheet on Friday."
Everyone can see their own line at a glance, and nobody has to guess. If you're asking one person for several things about the same piece of work, number them, so the reply can say "1 done, 2 by tomorrow" and you can see that nothing was skipped.
Deadlines need a day and, where it matters, a time. "Soon", "when you can" and "EOD" all mean different things to different people, and "EOD" means something else again to a colleague in another time zone. "By Thursday 5pm Singapore time" leaves no room for doubt.
The cc line is where emails go to get ignored. In many offices people copy the whole team, the manager and the manager's manager, just in case. Each extra name has a cost. Every person in cc has to open the email to work out whether it concerns them, and a long cc list makes everyone assume that someone else will act.
Before you add a name, ask whether they need to do something or need to know something to do their own job, and if the answer is no to both, leave them off. If you do copy someone, say why in the email: "Copying Mr Tan for awareness as the budget holder" or "Copying Siti, who will take over this event in April." It tells the reader why they're there, and it stops the copied person replying to ask.
Be careful with copying someone's manager when you are chasing them. Your colleague will often read it as escalation, even if you only meant to keep their manager informed. If it really is an escalation, it usually goes better as a separate conversation first, which lesson 2.4 covers.
Here is Weiling's venue email rewritten.
Subject: Approval needed by Wednesday: venue booking for 14 March forum
"Hi Mr Koh, could you approve the booking of the Level 3 auditorium for the 14 March forum by Wednesday? The venue is holding it for us until Thursday. The cost is within the events budget, and the quote is attached. I will send the media question separately. Thank you."
The subject line, the first sentence and the attachment do all the work, and the director can approve it from a phone.
Your sent folder is full of emails that could be improved this way, and five of them are enough for the activity below. Start with the ones that got no reply, or got a reply that answered something you didn't ask.
Rewrite the subject line and first paragraph of five emails in your sent folder so each names the action and the deadline.
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