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.
“Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?”
Not much, what is going on with you?
Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?
I can read
S-trier trolling right here.
It’s not that they “insist” on not answering, they just have limited reading comprehension and/or attention span. With experience you learn to ask exactly one question in an email, and maybe you’ll get an answer some of the time, and if you’re lucky it will be coherent.
It really is a sad State of affairs that reading comprehension is so bad that people can’t answer questions in written form.
I mean it’s literally written down you can’t miss it.
And to clarify this is more of me complaining because I’ve experienced this a lot. It’s most apparent in online discussions, where seemingly a majority of what you say gets completely skipped missed or misinterpreted and replies often focus on just a couple words of your statement instead of understanding sometimes even just a whole paragraph.
if we’re referring to people in the U.S. it’s important to remember that over half of the population can’t read beyond a 6th grade level. -That’s according to our own Former-Department of Education.
It is a sad state but it’s like the weather, you can complain about it or dress for it.
… Or both?
Why make a false dichotomy out of it?
I enjoy raging against it.
Good point, I rant about winter all the time.
Been doing email since it began. Same frustrations.
Solutions (workarounds):
- Email is structured with “executive summary” & “detail”. That way I can write all the words I want but people can only read the first paragraph.
- Never ask questions. Tell them what I’m going to choose, & give them opportunity to disagree. That way if they don’t respond usefully I can take their “non-response” as a response & proceed anyway.
- If I need to ask a question, use a phone call or go to their desk, or (shudder) make a meeting.
No.
I started listing the questions as 1. 2. 3. And so on. Which helped a lot.
I hate when i do that and they still refuse to answer more than one
At least now you can rely back with “can you also provide feedback for #1 & #3?”
Repeat until all items are cleared. Not perfect, but at least you don’t have to waste time rewording a follow-up email.
I usually number my questions, makes it more obvious
Because people choose the easiest question to answer. You can’t change people, but you can change how you communicate.
Poor reading comprehension skills are more prevalent than we think
54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). source
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
Ignoring the slightly superfluous ‘average’, but… Wow. I’m surprised. I guess there’s a lot of people in far rural areas, or impoverished, or just surfing is their life (California has the lowest adult literacy!), who never learnt to read.
In CA the inland is full of dumb rednecks and the coast is full of smart immigrants.
CA probably has the highest literacy rate of any state…in Hindi, or Mandarin lol
The level of frustration from online discussions when the things you say are entirely missed or misinterpreted is a great example of this.
Even mildly complex topics that touch anything politically charged or emotionally charged tend to be subject to groupthink dynamics in a format where group think is largely just a result of poor reading comprehension.
For me it’s not intentional. I get fixated on one of the questions that require more mental energy than the others and then forget to answer the rest. I have no excuses. My bad.
People are lazy and stupid, you can ask one question at a time or better yet setup a meeting to ask them verbally, you aren’t getting any answers otherwise
How are the questions formatted?
This. Use bullets or bold each question so the number of questions is clear before each question is fully read.
In a workplace environment, I shouldn’t have to format emails as if they’re to be read by a 12 year old.
Welcome to the workforce! (I’m assuming you’re new…)
No, just very stubborn
It’s not simply a reading comprehension thing with bullet points. If your questions require research on my end having them already structured in bullets does a few things to help with that process.
The asker’s bullet structure gives something to mimic. You can even put your answers directly below the question, so the asker can be reminded of their own questions.
The bullets also help skimming, if I need to see which item id is needed next it’s easier to do so without losing my place.
Bullet grammar structure also allows for much terser sentences. If I need to reread your question it’s easier if I don’t have to ignore a bunch of words that don’t substantively alter the meaning.
Do I need any of these? No. Could I put the questions into bullets myself for the reply? Sure. But it’s easier to spend more time and effort on answering your questions if you save me a few steps.
Sure, depending on the issue. But the main issue is that some people actually DO need those, and for those people, it’s absolutely a reading comprehension thing (which could have roots in being overworked, not caring, low attention span, poor schooling, any number of things, but the end result is poor reading comprehension).
If you don’t care enough about the topic to take a few seconds to proofread and format your questions why would I care to decipher them? 12 year olds learn that taking the time to write a first and second draft will improve the final product.
Definitely some acceptable variation between informal chats and emails being sent to whole teams so know your audience.
Who said anything about not proofreading? My emails are perfectly legible and written in proper English. You’re equating “lack of dumbed-down easy to digest bullet points” with “sloppy, error-filled writing”. They’re two extremely different things.
I should not have to read emails as if they’re written by 12 years old either.
Agreed, and also a non sequitur?
Not non sequitur - Chiasmus
Yeah I had to look them up.
Yep that’s fine push to production by Friday plz.
If you’ve got questions, put them in bullet points.
I’m not scanning a wall of text to find everything.
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parse
That sounds like technical jargon…
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I can confirm that it doesn’t work at all. My advice is to send one question per email, or one chat message per question. It’s better.
AI bullshit
