The Old New Thing

Email tip: Pronouns in the subject line are in the eye of the beholder

June 12, 2008 Jun 12, 2008 06/12/08

Raymond Chen

This applies to email, but it applies even more to meetings and appointments, which are typically arranged via email or similar workflow. It may seem obvious at the time, but messages with pronouns like me or you in the subject line tend to be harder to understand when you come back to the message a little while later. I was reminded of this...

Email tip: If they didn't get your message, then they won't know that they didn't get it

May 6, 2008 May 6, 2008 05/6/08

Raymond Chen

I illustrate this point with a conversation that actually happened: Person 1: "Did you get my email?" Person 2: "Which one?" Person 1: "The last one...

Email tip: Nostalgia is not a question

April 15, 2008 Apr 15, 2008 04/15/08

Raymond Chen

This is another special case of Don't forget to ask your question, indeed an even more extreme case of Making some statements and asking for advice isn't a question. I remember in version X, we used to be able to accomplish Task Q by clicking on W and then selecting X. Now you have to click on Y and select Z...

Email tip: A peer-to-peer discussion group does not come with a service level agreement

March 4, 2008 Mar 4, 2008 03/4/08

Raymond Chen

Most email discussion groups are not official support channels. There are a lot of peer-to-peer mailing lists inside Microsoft, consisting of people who are interested in a particular topic, sharing tips, providing advice, helping each other out if somebody runs into a problem, but they aren't the official support mechanism for the product ...

When you ask somebody to take a look, you need to tell them what you want them to find

February 19, 2008 Feb 19, 2008 02/19/08

Raymond Chen

Here's a message I received some years ago, paraphrased: From: X Subject: FW: Bug 161803: Program Q uses undocumented resource which we changed in Vista Raymond, can you take a look? ------- Original message ------- From: Y Subject: Bug 161803: Program Q uses undocumented resource which we changed in Vista It appears that ...

Email tip: Don't use a rude subject line just to make your message easier to spot

January 23, 2008 Jan 23, 2008 01/23/08

Raymond Chen

Here are some subject lines I've seen over the past few years (suitably redacted): Sure, using exclamation points, all capital letters, or strange eye-catching punctuation marks makes it easier for you to spot replies to your message in your inbox, but it's also rude to your readers, who almost certainly do not consider your message as ...

Email tips from Adam Phillabaum

October 30, 2007 Oct 30, 2007 10/30/07

Raymond Chen

Adam Phillabaum of Doing Boeing (who kept the name even though he left Boeing and now works for PayScale) has his own tips for writing email. Recommended reading...