This excerpt from Chapter 4 of The Art of E-Mail Writing offers tips for efficiently organizing e-mail. The Art of E-Mail Writing is available from First Books (www.FirstBooks.com)
CHAPTER 4: STRUCTURE—ORGANIZING YOUR IDEAS
People who write well … know two powerful truths:
1. Creativity without structure is chaos.
2. Structure without creativity is pointless.
Those apologists for feeble expression or weak organization miss the point of quality e-mail writing. They are not writing a provocative Aristotelian treatise or a lurid Kafkaesque novella; they’re simply communicating information to people who need it to perform their jobs effectively. Even great writers have discovered their best structure through the expressiveness of their story line, while other greats have cultivated their style based on the narrative foundation they laid. So if you are of the structure vs. style mindset, forget about it. You’re better off thinking that you cannot be good at one without being good at the other. This chapter offers quick, useful tips for improving your structure, and the next chapter focuses on helpful hints for style.
To purchase your copy of The Art of On-the-Job Writing by Philip Vassallo, click here: https://www.firstbooks.com/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=144
Coming Soon! The Art of E-Mail Writing by Philip Vassallo, also through First Books: http://www.firstbooks.com/.
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