Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension requires more than just reading the first sentence of an e-mail and replying. My latest pet-peeve is writing a detailed and concise e-mail requesting three things from the recipient and getting a one or two word non-response.
Read It All For Good Reading Comprehension
My e-mails are clearly written. And I check them carefully before I send them. I take care to write e-mails as clearly as I can. To me, they are correspondence with almost as much importance as a type-written letter. Being clear and concise is important to me. If I wanted a cursory review, I’d text or message you instead.
My e-mails typically include:
- A pleasant greeting
- A summary of the purpose of the e-mail
- Any background information you may want or need to know including relevant attachments
- Requests I have of you
- A personal closing of thanks or appreciation and my name (and contact information if appropriate)
I understand that you may be reading my e-mail on a phone screen the size of a post-it note. You are also possibly trying to type out a response with your fat thumbs on an even smaller phone screen keyboard.
But, if you get the following e-mail:
And you reply back:
“It’s the first one”
Your appallingly clear non-reading of my e-mail and cursory reply to get it out of your in-box is annoying to us both.
The word “it” or “that” in a reply are rarely enough to make your response understandable. Your hasty reply will only require a follow-up e-mail to clarify. Much of the follow-up e-mail will need to re-state much of what I put in the first e-mail.
Your hasty reply doesn’t save time for either of us.
Glad to have gotten that off my chest.
Current Knitting
Like a good knitter, I went back to the Ensign Brook DK Cardigan.
I made some progress on it too! I’m almost finished with the second stripe-sequence repeat. I’m also loving the yarn from Ensign Brook Farms.
I need about 2 more inches on this before I start shaping for the arm holes and chest/neck opening. It will only go faster and faster soon!
You’re an educated articulate writer. You’ve honed those skills in the workplace for how many years?
These skills are not as commonplace as you would think. Trying to get middle and high school kids to write, especially boys, is the most painful exercise imaginable. You would think We were trying to feed them glass.
True enough, I’ve been writing for a long time and it took me a long time to write well. But it’s more the laziness in reading through an e-mail that drives me crazy.
That is a major complaint that I have with some email recipients too! So very frustrating and, you are right, a waste of time for all involved. I have found it helpful if I identify any questions I need answered by making bullet points out of them. If the questions are within a paragraph, I will either italicize, underline or highlight the question.
I am in awe of all your knitting.