Importance of writing

April 30, 2020 - by David

Writing about writing.

Modern communication methods have only increased the importance of writing properly. Whereas we used to communicate primarily in person or over the phone, it is now far more likely to take place via the written word. Think about the amount of time you spend now talking on your phone compared to writing messages; email, SMS, social media, productivity applications, countless messaging apps, etc.

This is becoming exponentially more important as more work is done remotely. Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic (WordPress, etc), made the point clearly, calling is the “third level” in achieving “autonomy”.

"It’s also the point at which you realize just how crucial written communication is for your success, and you start looking for great writers in your hiring."

Matt Mullenweg in Distributed Work’s Five Levels of Autonomy

This follows from a great discussion on Making Sense with Sam Harris #194 - The New Future Of Work (with Matt Mullenweg).

Writing Tips

These are mostly for anyone using Gmail for personal email, or GSuite at your company, which is roughly 28% of people. If you’re using an Apple device email client, 44% of people, there are surely easy equivalents.

Write responses inline

In any long email, with multiple topics, always write replies to a specific part inline. This means inserting part of your reply directly below the line it pertains to.

Expanding the message when replying is done by clicking the grey three dots button.

An example of what this looks like in Gmail in full is below.

Manage `to` and `cc`

When starting a thread with multiple people, be considerate of who is in the to field and who is in the cc. Not everyone should be in the to if it’s not of immediate concern to them. When you receive an email where this is done properly, and you see yourself in the cc, you know that the sender’s intention was to keep you in the loop, not to get your immediate attention.

Add +name

If a thread requires bringing someone in who isn’t on the origial to list, be sure to add a line at the top of the reply message with their name.

It’s as easy as adding “+” and their name, like this:

+ Harvey Dent

This helps point out to others that someone has been added. It also serves as a reminder to actually add them before hitting send.

It’s also easy to remove people from a thread by moving their name to bcc with a similar line, like this:

-bcc Harley Quinn

Comments

Paul Slaughter has published an excellent guide to writing constructive comments called Conventional Comments. Following a common structure for comments is a great way to make them more easily understandable. The suggested format is very simple and easy to remember.

<label> [decoration]: <subject>
[discussion]

label: This is a single label that signifies what kind of comment is being left.
subject: This is the main message of the comment.
decoration (optional): This is an extra decorating label for the comment.
discussion (optional): This contains supporting statements, context, reasoning, and anything else to help communicate the “why” and “next steps” for resolving the comment.

Examples

Alfred replies inline

writing email remote hiring

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