This is my writing gem: when you send an email, you either want them to know something or do something, so say that in the first sentence:
Good: "FYI, our etcd cluster is broken, but we're working to fix it."
Bad: "I came in this morning, and while I was going through my emails when I saw a message about one of the nodes in our cluster. So I checked it out, and sure enough it was down, and I went to the console and saw the kernel had panicked, so I ... [much further down] and that's when I realized our etcd cluster was down."
The later is what I call The Narrative: people have a natural inclination to tell a story, but the irony is that usually what's at the end of the story is the thing that should be first ("the cluster is down!").
Similarly when asking for something:
Good: "Could you please get me a new monitor? I'm getting headaches from the current one's constant flickering"
Bad: "I had a headache yesterday, so I had to leave early—I hope that's okay. Anyway, I'm not sure about the purchase requisition process. I think there's a resonating frequency between the 60Hz electric system and my monitor's refresh rate, but I'm not an electrical engineer. By the way, the new chair is great ..."
Good: "FYI, our etcd cluster is broken, but we're working to fix it."
Bad: "I came in this morning, and while I was going through my emails when I saw a message about one of the nodes in our cluster. So I checked it out, and sure enough it was down, and I went to the console and saw the kernel had panicked, so I ... [much further down] and that's when I realized our etcd cluster was down."
The later is what I call The Narrative: people have a natural inclination to tell a story, but the irony is that usually what's at the end of the story is the thing that should be first ("the cluster is down!").
Similarly when asking for something:
Good: "Could you please get me a new monitor? I'm getting headaches from the current one's constant flickering"
Bad: "I had a headache yesterday, so I had to leave early—I hope that's okay. Anyway, I'm not sure about the purchase requisition process. I think there's a resonating frequency between the 60Hz electric system and my monitor's refresh rate, but I'm not an electrical engineer. By the way, the new chair is great ..."