For example I’ll send an e-mail with 3 questions and will only get an answer to one of the questions. It’s worse when there are 2 yes/no questions with a question that is obviously not a yes/no question. Then I get a response of

Yes

back in the e-mail. So which question are they answering?

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? Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?

Edit at this point I’ve got the answers . Some are too lazy to actually read. Some admit they get focused on one item and forget to go back. I understand the second group. The first group yeah no excuse there.

Continuing edit: there are comments where people have tried the bullet points and they say it still doesn’t help. I might put the needed questions in red.

  • AlreadyDefederated@midwest.socialEnglish
    7·
    10 days ago

    The human brain processes information by chunking - bundling up information into chunks to remember it. It’s like a .zip file or compression on an image. That process is a bit lossy. If you’ve ever tried to write a technical document or a rules-set for a game, and had a user go through the document undirected, you’ll see it in action.

    The more complicated, technical, or tedious the instructions are, the more likely loss or misinterpretation will occur. A friend of mine says that writing a technical document is like programming a computer that skips every 7th line.

    As a person who has written many of these, I’ve found ways to counteract / ameliorate their problems:

    • the use of paragraphing important points that you want feedback on
    • When sending to multiple people, but wanting feedback from a specific person, I bold, underline, and color their name next to their action item, so they know it’s for them
    • Using checklists or bullet points
    • explaining things through multiple avenues, like with visual images and with text simultaneously

    I hope this helps!

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      10 days ago

      Hopefully you use astricks to bold because if you’re using HTML then lots of people won’t see all of those text decorations

    • 5too@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      I’ve also found it helps to, if you have just a few questions that aren’t really related, break them into separate messages. And space them out a bit, if you’ve got time.