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.
On average a communication has more readers than writers, so it is better for writer(s) to use effort in order to save effort on the behalf of the reader(s).
This was especially true in the days of mailing lists and me having to beat TOFU users about the head with a clue-by-4. But, it remains true today. The median communication might be 1 to 1, but it’s much more frequent for additional readers to be added that additional writers, so maximum effort with writing is still true.
But, man, it is annoys the heck out of me when I compose informative, contexual email/SMS with several open-ended questions and get back: “yes”.