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Home  >  Writing Skills Challenge  >  EQ Answers

EQ Test Answers and Explanations

What's your EQ? How many e-mail errors did you find? We've flagged 10 errors. Roll over the yellow flag to read our explanations or scroll to the bottom of this page. Then count the number of errors you found to calculate your EQ.

EQ Explanations

  1. Poor subject line. Subject lines should preview the message. This important message might never get read.
  2. Oops! Forgot to send the attachment mentioned in the e-mail.
  3. Watch your tone! Gossipy reference to Christmas party is inappropriate in this serious message.
  4. Correct spelling but wrong word. The correct word is "steals," not "steels." Spell checkers won't catch usage errors.
  5. Put your main message up front. The main point of this e-mail message is buried in the middle—probably not on the first screen.
  6. Give adequate information. Whom should we contact? How do we reach them?
  7. Thirty page attachment! Who's got the time? Summarize the relevant information in the e-mail message. Long attachments clog the e-mail system and take a long time to download.
  8. Critical information—unrelated to the e-mail—slipped into the end of the message. Not a BTW to a computer user who missed this point and lost crucial data. Make this a separate e-mail message, or clue in the reader in the subject line or first paragraph.
  9. Be time sensitive! Message sent at 11:58 a.m. warns of a computer shutdown at noon!
  10. Paragraphs please! Help the reader digest the message by chunking the information into eyebytes.

How many problems did you identify correctly? Count up the number and find out your EQ.