Just this afternoon I was thinking about how I quickly scan (or sometimes just delete) long emails. I figure, if it’s really important someone will email me again to remind me to: RSVP, turn in my reading scores, finish my order form, etc. From there, I started thinking about the weekly newsletter I send to parents in my class. It goes against all I believe in when it comes to email– it’s quite long and is written in paragraphs (few bulleted lists), although I try to make each section as succinct as I can.
I recognized a lot of my own behaviors in the article, How Users Read on the Web as well as some “tricks” I use in my weekly newsletter: key words, meaningful headings (followed by one idea), and bulleted lists. I especially liked the table at the end of the article which showed different ways to publish on the web. I had no interest reading the first example (the paragraph), but the last example in which the writing was concise and in bullet form was very reader friendly.
Good food for thought for when I write the next riveting edition of “Walter Weekly.”
I also skim and scan emails because we get so many in a day. Before I know I am buried in them. We began sharing our newsletter responsibility across the team so having a bulleted format with headings helps us to be consistent, especially when person who writes it for the team changes every ten days. I want to go back and look at that table again!