E-mail and Marketing Connection--Part 5

This is the fifth week we've talked about the e-mail and marketing connection, and the fourth week we've discussed paragraphing skills. How are your paragraphing skills coming along? Getting better? Hopefully, the answer is, Yes! It takes time to develop this writing art, so don't be discouraged if you are still struggling with it. It's the old "Rome wasn't built in a day" syndrome.

Jane Watson, a communications expert, has some recommendations about paragraph length. In her book Write On!, she says:

"Opening and closing paragraphs in letters, memos, and reports should not be more than four to six lines long. Business writing is psychological. If your opening paragraphs are too long, they will discourage your readers from taking time to continue reading.

Closing paragraphs should also be brief, and they should clearly indicate the action the reader is to take....

Paragraphs in the body of a letter, memo, or report should never exceed ten lines. Again, today's readers are intimidated by long chunks of information. They will read the first and last sentences and skim the middle. Therefore, to ensure that your reader will not miss important information, keep paragraphs under ten lines."

Ms. Watson also mentions some length restrictions for e-mails:

"Opening and closing paragraphs for e-mail should be two to three lines long; body paragraphs should never exceed five lines. Reading from a computer screen is more difficult than reading hard copy. If your e-mail paragraph fills the screen, your reader may not try to interpret it. Make it easy on your reader--keep your paragraphs short."

In order to keep paragraphs short in e-mail, you really have to give thought to the four elements that comprise a paragraph. Do you remember what those four elements are:

1. Topic sentence.
2. Development of main idea.
3. Transitional elements.
4. Closing sentence.

In an e-mail, you cannot ramble on. And really, since editors don't have time, you shouldn't casually ramble on in your marketing package.

Next week, we'll start to look at other e-mail flaws that nearly always show up in marketing packages.

article written by Dawn Spencer

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