Living style guide for professional/personal-professional email, built from real edits made to drafted emails. Each entry records the correction and why, so future drafts start from these defaults.
Principles
- No em dashes. Use a comma (or split the sentence) instead. “Thanks again for the letter, it’s been reviewed…” not “Thanks again for the letter — it’s been reviewed…” Rationale (2026-03-29): em dashes read as disconnected thoughts.
- Natural over formal; nothing AI-sounding. Prefer conversational prose over structured, stiff, or template-flavored writing (2026-07-13).
- Don’t recite the recipient’s own material back to them. If asking someone to confirm something about a document they wrote, just ask. Don’t enumerate its contents as supporting evidence; they know what’s in it.
- Don’t manage how they reply. Cut lines like “a one-line reply is perfectly fine.” It reads as instructing the recipient; trust them to respond naturally.
- Soften transactional framing. “I believe it is, but just wanted to quickly confirm” over “I just need a quick written confirmation from you for the file.” Avoid legalistic phrasing (“for the file”, “for our records”) in friendly asks unless the formality is genuinely needed.
- Don’t interpret the recipient’s own rules for them. When a request might bump against their policy, describe what’s wanted and let them apply their rules. Preemptively arguing why a policy doesn’t apply (“so my understanding is this wouldn’t require manager approval”) reads as defensive and can invite pushback.
- State the ask once. No justification stacked on top of the ask, no repeating it in different words. Warm open, one clear ask, warm close.
- Shorter wins. The sent version of a draft tends to be ~40% shorter than the first pass with the same information content.
Edit log
2026-03-29 - Buckmaster/SAP update to Grace Shin (Green Card - PERM Project Tracker)
Flagged em dashes in the draft: “they seem to indicate disconnected thoughts.” Draft revised to replace them with colons and full sentences (“he’s been very responsive” → “as he has been very responsive”).
2026-07-13 - PopSockets warranty claim email
Asked to remove em dashes and make the language less formal and less AI-sounding. Preference stated explicitly: natural, conversational prose over structured or formal writing.
2026-08-08 - Letterhead confirmation to Stephan Wehner (Green Card - PERM Project Tracker)
Draft vs. sent:
| Draft | Sent | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| ”the letter — it’s been reviewed" | "the letter, it’s been reviewed” | Em dash to comma |
| ”The document has the company name, Adanac Street address, website, and phone at the top, so I believe it is — I just need a quick written confirmation from you for the file." | "I believe it is, but just wanted to quickly confirm.” | Cut the evidence recital of his own letter; dropped transactional “for the file” framing |
| ”A one-line reply is perfectly fine.” | (deleted) | Don’t instruct the recipient how to reply |
2026-08-08 - General employment letter request to SAP HR (Earvin, ticket 7006039059) (Green Card - PERM Project Tracker)
Draft sent verbatim except one cut: “No duties or responsibilities, so my understanding is this wouldn’t require manager approval.” Removed because it interpreted SAP’s own policy back at the HR rep who wrote it. Describe the request; let them apply their rules.