Throw Me the Bottom Line...: I'm Drowning in E-Mail!

I teach writing style to PhD students in the medical faculty of the University of Helsinki, Finland, and annually compose surely a thousand emails. This 100-page book is right on point. It enlightened me, but how does one enliven the dry subject of email-writing style and ensure that all of one's points are memorable? The method here is to have valuable points emerge throughout an imaginary workshop. In this setting, workshop leaders who are struggling to teach office staff to write well must also satisfy their own mentor, the sharp-tongued Bob. Bob shows them why he's disgusted with the tsunami of email churning through his office, much of it "multiple copies of nothing." His pained cry is "So WHAT?" Two vital points emerge. First, especially in a business setting, the "bottom line"--what my medics call the "take-home message"--should appear clearly and early in the email. Second, the ranking of each email recipient determines style. Is the recipient of higher or lower rank, or on the sender's own professional level? Is the message positive or negative? Style-choices include personal versus impersonal, with verbs in the active or passive voice or some mixture of these. The book's layout features numerous examples of style. Points to remember come in handy lists. In short, this tale of a complicated power-struggle among mentors and protégés allows one to absorb tips--ones certainly not limited to the business world. These tips are supported by actual findings in my own field of discourse analysis, which includes politeness, "face-saving," and social gradients. All of us need help in handling human relationships wisely, using skills that mean saving both time and paper. This book should certainly help all to develop such skills--without boring any reader to tears.