How to Craft Precise Business Emails

How to write a business email with military precision

Insight from HBR

When you send an email, your recipient first sees the subject line, so make sure it’s as straightforward as possible.

What is your email’s purpose?

What do you want your recipient to do? Take a page from military personnel. Their subject lines use keywords in all caps to note the email’s purpose.

For example:

INFO – For informational purposes only
REQUEST – Seeks permission or approval by the recipient
ACTION – The recipient must take some action

These demarcations might seem obvious or needlessly exclamatory, but they make your emails stand out in the recipient’s inbox.

So, if you need to send your direct reports a status update, try using the subject line:

INFO – Status Update.

If you need your manager to approve your vacation request, you could write REQUEST – Vacation. Using these keywords also forces you to think about what you want from someone before contributing to their email clutter.