I will put 3 simple 1 sentence questions in a numbered list and get a single answer back.
Idgaf any more I just copy/paste the same 3 questions and send it back.
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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For me? Usually it’s because answering the first question on the list took a lot of time, research, or mental energy and I had forgotten there were other questions by the time I finally had the answer written down. Sense of accomplishment, hit send.
People are kind of stupid and lazy, and if there's no immediate benefit for doing something or punishment for skipping it, they'll do whatever's easiest. We're all like this to some degree, in some contexts or other.
It is a little funny to me that some people just don't have professional standards. I would make a good faith effort to respond completely to a work email because that's the job. But I don't think that's it for a lot of people.
There's a lot of ADHD and friends in the world, and a lot of it is untreated. They're not skipping questions out of malice. They're probably trying their best. Still failing, but trying. That counts for something.
A lot of people also don't read well. They won't likely show up on a texty medium like this, but they're out there. It may be uncomfortable and embarrassing for them to try to read your email, especially if the level of diction is high and the vocabulary extensive. Most people are emotionally kind of fragile, and won't put up with that shame for very long. I think that's why a lot of people want to hop on a call or have a meeting when it could've just been an email. They can talk fine, but communicating in written words is harder.
I'm not sure. Maybe. Sometimes. I don't know.
I can only tell you that my best results have come from replying with a neutral "Thank you", then repeating the questions. I prefer it when they answer all my questions, but ultimately, if I want answers, I need to persist, and so I do.
You are wrong. People do not insist. People are free to do.
For example, if I know the answer to question #2 then I can give this answer and why shouldn't I?
And I feel free to remain silent where I don't know things, or to forget that there have been more questions, or I don't have the time, or whatever...
People read the subject line, assuming it's not longer than about seven words, and then the first 30%, and last 15% of your email, in my experience. You can increase this by adding line breaks and bullets. In my experience, the best responses come from a short paragraph, followed by a couple bullet points, then a couple sentences, then your salutation/signature. I try not to write anything longer than that.
This. OP is mistaken if he thinks all people had to carefully read all email. We techies love to explain things too much, but executives are administrators, they don’t delve into technical details unless needed.
My technique to get busy executives to answer my emails is being direct and brief.
- Subject: As concise as possible, and then more
- In bold, one thing I need from them. Asking three things is a sure way to end up with two unanswered things.
- Two line breaks
- In bold “Details”, another line break, and a bullet list of any info they might need, but not necessarily read.
That’s it. If they need more, they will ask you. If you need more, send three emails, or make it very clear in the first line that you’re asking three things, and make them a bullet list.
Also, this works surprisingly well with people other than executives.
Yep. Basically you need to respect their time, and not ask them to duplicate the work you’ve already done. This is especially important for executives, but works well on anyone… if you really need someone to do a thing or answer a question, make it easy for them to focus on completing your ask.
Address the email to one person who you need action from.
Tell them succinctly:
Why is this important?
What do you need from them right now?
After that, preemptively provide the answers to any followup questions they might ask - give them further context so they don’t have to dig for it. Don’t ask them to read a whole email string below if you can summarize it.
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I tend to answer them all, but I’m weird that way
I read an email more than once to make sure I didn't miss anything. Not sure if the majority of people I exchange emails with has ever done more than skim an email.
The only ones who correctly respond to emails longer than a single sentence in their entirety are the legal folks.
As a neurodivergent engineer, I will either respond to half of your email, or 115% of it
Edit: …eventually. Or immediately. Or maybe never. Or I thought I did but didn’t press send.
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My colleagues complain of the same things, saying they've tried everything. But I never have that issue.
Here's an example of what they might send: Hello Bob, we have just recieved all your documents, so thank you. But upon review, we have found that we are still missing x,y,z. In order to expedite the process we ask for your cooperation.
- At your earliest convenience, can you please send not more than twelve months of documents x and how they pertain to y?
- Can you clarify why z contains a substantial difference from the previous times it occurred in September 2020, October 2020? Don't hesitate to contact us with any further questions!
Here's what I would say instead: Hi Bob, to finish the file we require:
- A max 12 months of documents x (showing y)
- Why is z now so different from 2020 Sept, Oct? Thanks in advance.
I know of 5 people I work with who will moat likely send you 10 months of documents x (showing y) as a response to your example, 12 if you are lucky.
No, they will not even acknowledge #2. They would have the same reaponse to your first, wordier version because they are just doing the first request and barely noticed you had a two digit number.
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This is the correct answer. If people aren't answering all your questions, your not formatting your questions properly.
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As others have suggested, in order to communicate effectively, you have to tailor your message to your audience. Dumb it down, break it down, shorten it, order questions from most to least important or most to least relevant to the recipient, or just badger them relentlessly with follow ups until you have the information you need and talk shit about them behind their back to any competent coworkers you have.
Regardless, they're not going to just magically change, so it's up to you to do something different if you want a different result than you're getting now.
In the US it's probably because literacy and reading comprehension is the lowest it's been since the 80s.
The person that inspired this message will never change. You have to treat them as if you were a lawyer, and they are a hostile witness. Ask them one question, then follow up with another, until you have your answers. Problem is, they will probably catch on pretty quick and leave you unanswered.
IMO, email isn't for answering questions. Email is for documenting that the conversation occurred.
If they won't answer the questions in email, ask them in a phone call, then send a "Per our conversation" email summarizing the answers they provided. Until they send a rebuttal, I am free to act as though my email was their answer.
They don't want to. Lazy, careless? Who knows. They zero in on one thing, type the one word answer and hit send.
Like others say, I bullet point multiple questions (usually with just a - , I'm not using a word processor to write emails) and if they don't answer some I'll quote the whole bullet list including whatever they answered and paste it back.
I'm a little blunt though and it puts some people off.
People hate to read. I write emails that try to cover all bases, because I can't assume grown adults with advanced degrees know what's going on. Sadly, they'll not only not read it, but ask me to write less. Cutting the word count only leads to more confusion.
I'm so done with humanity sometimes.
I skip questions I don't want to answer.
The question they are answering is the first one they read.
(/s)
Mainly I’m asking all of you why do people insist on only answering 1 question out of an e-mail where there are multiple?
They are either distracted or don't understand that there are multiple questions. In a few cases they don't want or know how to respond to multiple questions in an email format because they are afraid of changing your text formatting (yes, at least three people have told me that was why they didn't).
Do people just not read?
Quite a few have terrible reading comprehension.
Are people that lazy?
Some are.
What is going on?
It is a mix of a lot of things, all of which are different versions of poor communication skills.
I was taught in college to only include a single question in one email unless you can't get around it, because many people will only see the first one.