email-drafting

name	email-drafting
description	Drafts emails in the right tone and length for the situation — cold outreach, follow-up, introduction, apology, thank-you, difficult conversation. Use when a user needs to write an email they're stuck on, rewrite an email that sounds off, or draft a template they'll reuse for similar situations.

Email Drafting

Produce emails that get replies. Match the situation; respect the reader's time.

When to use

• User has a hard email to write (cold outreach, declining something, apologizing, following up).
• Draft feels wrong and the user can't pin down why.
• User wants a reusable template for a recurring situation.
• Rewriting AI-generated emails that don't sound human.

Before you start

Ask for, or infer:

1. Purpose. One sentence: what should happen after they read this? ("Accept my proposal." "Set up a call." "Apologize and close the loop.")
2. Relationship. Cold (never met), warm (one degree), ongoing (colleague, customer, friend). Changes the opener and signoff.
3. Tone. Formal, neutral, casual. Match what the recipient uses, not what the sender defaults to.
4. Key constraints. A specific date, a price, a number they have to see — these must survive every edit.

Drafting workflow

1. Write the subject line last. Draft the body first; the subject condenses it.
2. One email, one ask. If there are three things, it's three emails — or a numbered list inside one email (not the same thing).
3. Front-load the ask. Busy people skim. The first sentence tells them what you want or what this is.
4. Keep under ~150 words for most business email. Longer emails get shorter responses (or none).
5. Close with a concrete next step — not "let me know your thoughts". Propose a time, a decision, a reply.
6. Remove signature fluff — no "Warm regards" if you've never met. No "I hope this email finds you well" ever.
7. Read aloud. If the reader would skim past anything, cut it.

Non-negotiable rules

• No "I hope this email finds you well." Universally skipped; signals copy-paste. Start with the point.
• Subject line tells the whole story. "Meeting request" doesn't. "15 min to discuss onboarding this week?" does.
• First sentence is not pleasantries — it's the point. "Following up on yesterday's call." "Quick question on pricing." "Proposing Tuesday 3pm."
• One email, one clear ask. Multiple asks hidden in prose = at most one gets addressed.
• End with a decision request, not a vibes request. "Does Tuesday 2pm work?" beats "Let me know if you're interested."
• Formal over casual when unsure. Easy to go casual in the reply thread. Hard to recover from inappropriate familiarity.
• Proofread names. Misspelled name is a signal the sender doesn't care.
• No emojis in cold / formal email. Once the thread is warm, matching their emoji usage is fine.

Output

For each request, give the user:

• One primary draft — the clearest fit for the situation.
• Subject line — punchy, under 50 chars.
• Optional: a variant if tone is ambiguous (e.g. "more formal version" if they want it).

If the user asks for a template, structure it with clear placeholders: [NAME], [SPECIFIC_PROJECT], [DATE].

References

• Templates — cold outreach, warm intro, follow-up, apology, difficult feedback, thank-you, decline, unsubscribe request, out-of-office. Each with subject + body + variants.
• Tone and voice — formal vs neutral vs casual; escalation on non-response; how to match the recipient's register.
• Subject lines — structures that get opened, red flags that get filtered, prefix conventions ([Action needed], [FYI]).