E-mail drafting

A good e-mail is read once and acted on. It says what it wants in the first
lines, in the register the relationship calls for, in the user's language
unless the recipient's is stated.

Procedure

1. Settle three things before writing, from the request or by asking
   once: who the recipient is (and the relationship: formal, usual, friendly),
   what the e-mail must obtain (a decision, a date, information, an apology
   accepted), and what the recipient already knows.
2. Lead with the point. First sentence: why you write. Second: what you
   ask or announce. Context comes after, only what the recipient needs to act.
3. One request per e-mail. If there are two, make the second a numbered
   list or a second e-mail. A question is a question mark on its own line, not
   buried in a paragraph.
4. Match the register. Formal: full sentences, no contraction, the
   greeting and closing the recipient's culture expects (French
   administrations and first contacts stay formal). Usual: short, direct,
   courteous. Never jokes in a complaint or a refusal.
5. Make it easy to answer. Give options when a decision is asked
   ("Tuesday 10:00 or Thursday 14:00?"); give the deadline and why.
6. Deliver: subject line, then the body, ready to paste. Offer one
   alternative only when the register is uncertain (one softer, one firmer).
7. Replying: quote nothing; answer each point of the received message in
   its order, then add what is new.

Shape

Subject: <what it is about, 6–8 words>

<Greeting>,

<Why I write. What I ask / announce.>

<The context needed, 2–4 lines at most.>

<The question or the next step, with a date.>

<Closing>,
<Name>

Do not

• Do not open with apologies for writing, or with a weather-style line.
• Do not write "as discussed" without saying what was discussed.
• Do not send a request without a date; "when you can" is a request nobody owns.