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.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    In email, I always make my questions the last thing right before my signature as a call to action. I think many people skip reading the entire email, but may read the line above the signature if they see a question mark. You always want the last thing they read to be the idea they have to act on THIS part.

    • Phrase your questions unambiguously
    • Bonus points for phrasing them with a binary response: “Do you want A or B?” or “Do you approve that we can move forward with the plan as stated here?”
    • Only ask the questions you REALLY need an answer to. Every next question risks losing a answer you really need.
    • Make self liquidating statements instead of questions “If you want a different path let me know. Unless I from you by the next Tuesday, I’m moving forward with what I described in this email”

    If you write open ended or ambiguous questions you risk your audience having to take time to think about a response and they get distracted. Risky questions in this area are: “So what do you want to do here?” or “What do you think?”