Email tip: People didn't answer your first email for a reason

Raymond Chen

It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Consider:

From: X
To: Group Y Question blah blah blah.

A day or two later:

From: X
To: Group Y Resending due to no response.

——- Original Message ——-
From: X
To: Group Y

Question blah blah blah.

You didn’t get a response because your previous message was poorly-phrased, or it was sent to the wrong group, or nobody recognized the question as something they could help with, or any of a number of possible reasons. Re-sending it is not going to fix that. If your question was poorly-phrased, it’s still poorly-phrased. The only difference is that now, it’s been poorly-phrased twice.

If you’re compelled to re-send your question, add information to make it more likely that somebody will respond to the second one. If you merely repeat the question, you’re just going to get the same response. (I.e., none.)

Raymond Chen

Follow