How do you determine that your letter is too long?

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If you will receive a letter with several pages, would you read it? Long letters, as well as very long article, it is very difficult to read and understand. Moreover, the author is so carried away by the process that in the end to understand what exactly he wanted from you, it becomes almost impossible.

Why not write long letters? The first and most obvious answer - because no one will read it!

Proper use of e-mail can be an effective tool in the development of your business. Writing long letters does not mean that you are more productive. Yes, you did a lot of work, but this work does not mean absolutely nothing. Now everyone is trying to reduce the processing of incoming mail and do the job as effectively as possible in a short period of time. Therefore, your long letter - it is not only a waste of your time, but also a wanton waste of others.

The shorter your letter, the better it will perform its work. It should contain only specific questions, or answers. Write only on the merits and nothing more. If you are still bursting with the desire to write a long letter, it may be better to appoint this person meet and discuss all aspects of the issues you for a business lunch?

How do you know that your letter has passed its limit? Here are 10 signs by which you can determine what you paid too much attention.

1. You do not know that are trying to say. It's as if you called someone first, and was asked, "What happened ?!" The natural answer: "Well... I do not know. You called me?! "Hold your letter is, until your head does not specify a clear question or answer.

2. You are uncomfortable with the subject. This can be compared with an endless stream of consciousness in the meetings, when people do not own the subject of conversation and thus trying to cover up his ignorance. Or when the student begins to great length to answer the question of the teacher, trying to earn at least three. Same thing with a long letter. If you can not be summarized as what you want from the person on the other end, then you do not have enough knowledge. This can often be seen in large companies, in which people give the appearance of busy writing a very important and long letters.

3. Shorten your standard signature. If your letter contains the answer in a few words, your signature with all the details (title, company, the entire list of contacts, favorite quote, logo or slogan of the company, etc.) on the floor of the page will look like ridiculous. Try to leave the entire letter in the style of minimal.

4. You write a book. Emails - not books. If there is additional information, attach it to the letter in the form of separate files. If the letter can be very long, it is worth thinking about what kind of information to better identify and send in an application.

5. You spam. Such situations often occur in large corporations, where employees feel a kind of need send each other long letters, which contain a detailed report on the work done with the permanent updates. As a result, day turns into a solid verification email with a stream of messages in the style of "I sent a letter to the customer.", "Arrange a meeting." "The report is over 30%." And so on.

6. Your letters incoherent. It is not necessary to write a two-page letter to ask just one question.

7. You abuse peresylaniem letters. Rather than deal with a letter, you simply click "Send." The toga letter is converted into an endless belt, which is almost impossible to get to the main point.

8. It should not be writing. Do not send the letter what is best discussed at a meeting or on the phone. Sometimes e-mail is not the right tool for communication. If it takes more than a few lines, the best person to discuss the matter or make a phone call.

9. This should be a message to the number of beneficiaries more than one. For example, writing a letter to the head and puts in recipients of all its employees. It would seem, so he tries to shorten the time of writing and sending this letter to everyone individually and thus gets the job done efficiently. But, most of all, he did not even imagine that it will soon fill up an avalanche of responses in a letter as soon as his staff will press the "Reply All". Sometimes this method does not really work.

10. You do not edit your letters. Before you send a letter, you should read it again and edit. In addition to grammatical and spelling errors, you need to edit and its meaning. Perhaps what took an entire paragraph, you can put in a few lines. And another good rule of thumb: you should re-read your letter many times, how many people you are going to send it.

And before you send the letter, read it and make sure that it is short and contains only specific questions. The clearer your message, the greater the likelihood that the recipient will understand what is required of him, and will respond to you as briefly and to the point.