Nobody carefully reads every word of every email. To avoid getting lost in the shuffle, Inc. suggests ignoring what you learned in English class and starting every email with your conclusion.
Say you’re trying to get your boss to move a department meeting to an offsite location. You might write an email like this:
Since it’s often easier to generate creative ideas in unfamiliar locations, I’d like to suggest moving our meeting to the sushi restaurant across the street.
Instead, Inc. suggests writing more like this:
I think we should move our meeting to the sushi restaurant across the street, since it’s often easier to generate creative ideas in unfamiliar locations.
Writing this way serves two purposes. One, it means your most important point will show up in the preview pane of most email clients. Second, it plants your central idea in the recipient’s head right away, and lets your supporting points hammer it home. Check out Inc. for more email tips.
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