Making a muddy point even muddier

Recently, a tournament made a simple request to the teams that have been accepted. The message wasn’t quite as clear as it could be and created some questions. So, the responsible tournament director sent out another email, attempting to clarify the first email. Naturally, that did not clear it up; it only produced about three times more questions than did the original email.

Our Advice: Before sending out an email, read it out loud. Does it make sense? If it requires someone to do something, make sure the steps are clear by using bullet points and then attempting to do it yourself (or better, on someone removed from the process) using ONLY the directions you provided. Did you skip a step? Did you make an assumption? Chance are, you did.

And, as always, if your email contains a web address, email or phone number, copy/paste the web address into your browser to make sure it goes there. Send the email to make sure it is correct and call the number to make sure the right person/company answers. Every time.