For example I’ll send an e-mail with 3 questions and will only get an answer to one of the questions. It’s worse when there are 2 yes/no questions with a question that is obviously not a yes/no question. Then I get a response of

Yes

back in the e-mail. So which question are they answering?

Mainly I’m asking all of you why do people insist on only answering 1 question out of an e-mail where there are multiple? Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?

Edit at this point I’ve got the answers . Some are too lazy to actually read. Some admit they get focused on one item and forget to go back. I understand the second group. The first group yeah no excuse there.

Continuing edit: there are comments where people have tried the bullet points and they say it still doesn’t help. I might put the needed questions in red.

  • Infynis@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    People read the subject line, assuming it’s not longer than about seven words, and then the first 30%, and last 15% of your email, in my experience. You can increase this by adding line breaks and bullets. In my experience, the best responses come from a short paragraph, followed by a couple bullet points, then a couple sentences, then your salutation/signature. I try not to write anything longer than that.

    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
      1·
      16 days ago

      This. OP is mistaken if he thinks all people had to carefully read all email. We techies love to explain things too much, but executives are administrators, they don’t delve into technical details unless needed.

      My technique to get busy executives to answer my emails is being direct and brief.

      • Subject: As concise as possible, and then more
      • In bold, one thing I need from them. Asking three things is a sure way to end up with two unanswered things.
      • Two line breaks
      • In bold “Details”, another line break, and a bullet list of any info they might need, but not necessarily read.

      That’s it. If they need more, they will ask you. If you need more, send three emails, or make it very clear in the first line that you’re asking three things, and make them a bullet list.

      Also, this works surprisingly well with people other than executives.