Tell them what you want them to do

You've probably gotten it: the e-mail that goes on for eight or nine long, text-bound paragraphs. Then, when you finally slog through to the end, you don't know what it is you're supposed to do with the information in the e-mail.

You've probably also written a similar e-mail message.

If you want people to do things as a result of your e-mail message, you have to make it easy for them to see and understand that. Fortunately, some easy-to-use tools will help with that.

I typically try to treat e-mails like briefings, especially if I'm sending them to a large audience. I try to break up the information into three short sections. The names may vary, but the model stays the same. The sections are:

• Situation
• Background
• Actions Required

Situation. There has to be something that prompted you to write the e-mail. In two or three sentences, describe it. You can use any number of suitable section headers. For instance: Problem. Heavy snow is forecast for the area for the next 24-36 hours. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the area, expecting 18-24 inches before the end of the storm.

Background. It helps people frame their actions if they know why this is important. How does it relate to them? Tell them, but do so briefly. Background. The heavy snow will block the driveway and sidewalk making passage difficult if not impossible. In addition, you stay here rent free and your mother and I arrange for your food, clothing, and shelter.

Actions Required. Tell them what you want them to do, as simply as possible. If possible, also include what they should do if they have questions. Again, your header for this section can vary, depending on the circumstance. What you need to do. Please shovel the sidewalk and driveway, placing the excess snow on the lawn until the driveway in cleared. Please repeat this process in the morning and again toward the end of the day tomorrow. If you have any question, ask your mother, and please consider that we control the keys to the car.

It's a silly example, but the structure is solid and useful. Use active voice, include all the required details (but no more), and clearly state what you want them to do.

Grammar Stuff 1: Passive and Active Voice

Eighth-grade English wasn't much fun. What I remember most was the grammar. Mind-numbing repetition that seemed to take an eternity. Diagramming sentences and all that. My English teacher never yanked me out of the chair by my ear like one of my sixth-grade teachers did, but diagramming sentences might have been more painful.

Grammar is the art of making words work. Take passive and active voice. Yeah, yeah, I can picture your eyes glaze over now. But it's not that hard and you can master it pretty quickly.

Identifying active and passive voice

Here's an example of passive voice: The ball was hit by Daniel.

Here's active voice: Daniel hit the ball.

The second sentence is, in most cases, better. First, it has two fewer words, and the omitted words (was and by), didn't accomplish much anyway. Why keep them around leaching off the words that did the work?

Second, which sentence leads to a mental picture of someone hitting a ball? By economizing the words, you create more concise communication that people are more likely to read.

So how do I do it?
You can master active and passive voice by asking two simple questions:

1. Who is the actor in the sentence? If you can make the actor come first, you're probably okay. In the example Daniel is the actor. The ball is acted upon. Literally.
2. Does your sentence have the word was in front of the action verb?

If the actor comes first and you don't see a was in front of the verb, you're probably okay.

See, that wasn't so bad. Not as bad as being picked up by your ear.