This is the final tip for writing more effective emails.
Yesterday, I mentioned keeping your emails as brief as possible. The same applies to your replies.
This is particularly important when responding to long emails and/or emails that ask for multiple things.
Most people reply by hitting ‘reply’ and typing their comments at the top of the email thread (top-posting).
This works for simple requests, but for longer emails, try responding inline.
This means typing your response directly within the body of the email, ideally inserting it on a new line immediately after the relevant section you’re addressing.
I generally delete the rest of the original email, keeping only the relevant paragraph or two, along with my response. (In Apple Mail, this is done by highlighting the text you want to keep before hitting ‘reply’. The highlighted text remains, indented, and you can then type your response.)
Inline replying saves me from repeating the sender’s text and helps them to see my response in context. Everyone wins.