They Forgot to Teach You Productive Writing • Alex Morris

If you’re misunderstood, it’s your fault.

“We have a problem with that client from last week, could you take a look?”

This message provides less value than a “Hello”. It creates unproductive suspense without useful information. Maybe someone misspelt a client name in an email; maybe half of your business is at risk, you can’t tell. Unproductive writing is one of the largest invisible costs in organisations. It’s invisible because the cost of misunderstanding is paid for by the recipient, not the sender.

Writing and thinking are bidirectional. You think to help you write, and you write to help you think. The pursuit of productive writing is, therefore, the pursuit of productive thinking.

Productive writing is writing that is most likely to get things done in less time. This essay covers how to measure and execute productive writing.

This essay does not cover cases where writing is intentionally less productive. For example, writing techniques used to persuade, convince, or provoke curiosity.

The meaning and metric

Productive writing is about how easy it is to understand all the necessary information in a message for the target reader(s).

“Easy to understand” means the reader experiences less cognitive strain.

“All necessary information” means the reader needs no extra context to act.

The metric to measure your own writing is: the rate at which you get a decision-in-one.

A decision-in-one is based on the first response to your message. It confirms that the reader has all of the context and understanding needed to decide the next move, even if the next move is non-action.

Successful examples of a decision-in-one are:

“Let’s do action A.”
“Let’s kill this.”
“Let’s wait this one out.”
“We’re not going to act here.”
“Let me think on what to do next.”

Failed examples of a decision-in-one are:

“What did you mean by X?”
“What about Y?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by Z.”
“How big is this problem?”
“Which clients are affected?”

The more often you get one, the easier it is for people to work with you. Your messages create less stress and your threads close fast. When people have hundreds of messages, they’ll prefer to open yours.

The non-negotiables

The two biggest levers for productive writing are: context and summaries. Context provides all the necessary information for a decision-in-one. Summaries help people triage the message amongst their other work.

Summaries

A summary at the top of a message is critical to productive writing. A summary lets the reader quickly decide how they want to interact with your message. With a summary, your reader knows enough to decide:

Whether the message matters to them or not.
How urgent the message is, compared to their other work.

A good summary includes:

Whose attention is needed.
What has happened.
What is needed from the reader.

This is what a bad summary looks like:

“Hi Ryan, I need your help with a case I’m struggling with.”

This is what a good summary looks like:

“Hi Ryan, Claire from Company X submitted an order last week that got delayed by 3 days and she’s frustrated. Can you check what we offer as compensation?”

A summary’s length depends on the length of the message. A short message may not require one, a longer one almost always does.

Context

The most common reason you won’t get a decision-in-one is a lack of context. Context helps people size a problem. Without context, people are forced to go back and forth with you for clarification. When you end up having to go back and forth with someone, use that experience to reflect on what kind of context should have been included in the message in the first place.

For example:

Does your boss usually ask how much revenue is affected?
Does your customer usually ask for a link to what you’re talking about?
Does your product team usually ask for the steps you took to reach a bug?

Pay attention to what your readers find important. Ask yourself: “what is the most likely question they will ask after I send this message?”

Be concise

Concision is only saying what’s needed. No more, no less. To shorten your writing is to sharpen your thought. The more unnecessary words you use, the less value and attention people give what you say.

Concise language

Remove filler words. Don’t say “very quickly”, just say “quickly”. Don’t say “in order to”, just say “to”. Spend time reading over your sentences to see if you can say the same thing with fewer words.

Concise numbers

When using numbers above ten, digits are generally processed quicker than words. Your brain registers “1,201” quicker than “one thousand, two hundred, and one”. For some clean, round numbers like “a thousand” or “a hundred”, the written form can also be processed quickly.

Be easy

In the main English-speaking countries, the average adult reads at a middle-school level. Making your sentences a lower reading grade makes your message more accessible. This is also helpful if you work in a multi-national organisation, where you’ll be working with non-native English speakers. Aim for a middle-school reading level or lower with most of your sentences.

Reading level of written content is measured by three things:

Syllables: The fewer syllables a word or sentence has, the lower the reading grade.
Words: The more common and simple a word is, the lower the reading grade.
Sentences: The shorter the sentence is, the lower the reading grade.

Easy words

Choose words that are common and familiar to your audience. Using a thesaurus is counterproductive to getting things done. Use words that have fewer syllables, and are less rare. Only use technical terms when absolutely necessary.

Easy sentences

Active voice sentences are processed quicker than sentences in the passive voice. This means putting the subject before the object. For example, the active sentence “Dave emailed the accountant” is easier to understand than “the accountant was emailed by Dave”. Dave is the subject doing the thing, the accountant is the object to whom the thing is being done.

Be specific

Negative emotions thrive in the vague. When you make an unspecific statement about a problem, you evoke those negative emotions in your reader. When you only say that there’s “a problem”, your reader’s brain imagines the biggest problem they can. Save them from their anxiety.

A poorly-defined problem is seldom solved.

Specific people

Don’t group people: if a client is complaining, don’t say their company, department, or team is complaining. Name the specific person. This also applies internally, when you want something done. Approach addressing a group of people with caution. For specific tasks, group assignments lack accountability due to the diffusion of responsibility.

Specific work

If there’s a problem with a work unit like a project or task, label that item precisely. This helps people immediately identify if that message relates to a task that is relevant to them. If you have a comment about a project, specify the item it’s for.

Specific times

The quickest way to comfort people with your message is to name a date and/or a time. Almost everyone you will work with will be operating with time constraints. Every time you make a time commitment, it makes their work easier. Courage is required for this. There is a temptation to avoid commitment to avoid breaking a promise.

Avoid saying “soon” or “shortly” where you can. If you can’t give an ETA, give an ETA for an ETA. If you can’t give a time, give a time range. The more specific the time, the less anxiety you create. The better your personal management, the better you can stake your reputation on timing.

Specific links

Don’t send a message with a link to a long URL, make the hyperlinked text readable at first glance.

Instead of saying: “This is out-of-stock: https://www.storefront.com/en/product/1023981”

Say: “1023981 - Red/Blue King Size Deluxe Comfort Pro Mattress is out of stock.”

This also helps anyone find that conversation when using search features. In the above example, everyone can find that message by searching the product name or the product code.

Specific numbers

Numbers possess the quality of being understood in the same way by everyone who reads them. It doesn’t matter the mood, context, or language. Almost every situation relates to numbers. If you have a case that doesn’t have numbers in it, you’ve either forgotten to add them or don’t know enough about it.

A former boss of mine would check a message for both “Math & English”; your message needs both. Numbers should also have a reference number to give it meaning. Don’t write “We have a problem with a few orders from Company X”, write “3 out of 5 orders from Company X had a problem.”

Be guiding

A message that’s easy to read should guide the reader’s eye to the structure and hierarchy of your ideas. Two useful ways to do this are: signposting and formatting.

Signposting

Signposts are bullet points, headings, and repeated words (e.g., “Firstly”, “Secondly”, “Thirdly”). These clearly group ideas and guide the reader when topics or threads change. Without them, you end up with a hard-to-read block of words.

To make them clear, avoid multiple layers of hierarchy. If you have bullet points, avoid nested bullet points. If you have a big paragraph forming, separate them by idea and use the beginning of each paragraph to indicate where it sits amongst your ideas. For example:

Paragraph 1: “In regards to accounting…”

Paragraph 2: “In regards to recruitment…”

Paragraph 3: “In regards to changing offices…”

Consistency of language aids comprehension. Notice how I repeat the term “productive writing” over synonyms like “effective writing” or “strong communication”. It may be less varied and poetic, but it’s easier to read.

Formatting

Within sentences, you’ll guide readers where to focus on using text formatting. Use formatting sparingly: the more that you use it, the less effective it is.

Common text formatting includes:

Bolding: Use this for key information. Things like dates, actions, names. When your reader refers back to the message, these are the key words that stand out.
Italics: Use this to refer to external sources like journals or books, or an emphasis on a technical term. This is less effective than bolding as some screens and fonts make italics less noticeable.
Underlines: Avoid using this in general. People often think underlined words are hyperlinked.
Colours: Use these sparingly. Green and red can give context to whether numbers are good or bad. Blue and orange can mean the same thing, and are accessible for the colour-blind. LLMs won’t see coloured text if the message is processed in markdown.

Something to keep in mind

The more times you read your message over, the better you can make it. You may not always have time, but make the distinction between a lack of time and a lack of effort.

Productive writing is kind, unproductive writing is selfish.

As a repeat offender, this is mostly a message to myself.