“I received your report. We need to talk,” read the e-mail.

“Oh no!” I thought, “how bad was my report?”

Not bad at all. In fact, the report was great and my manager just wanted to tell me so in person. Unfortunately, his e-mail was too tersely worded. People often express anger by being curt and blunt. E-mail messages also tend to be curt and blunt, because the medium is so casual. Remember that your reader doesn’t hear your friendly tone of voice, or know that you were rushing out the door to a meeting. Try to find the sweet spot — a businesslike tempo between gushing and surly.