Write & communicate

Condense a long email into a short reply

Answer every necessary point concisely while preserving decisions, limits, and open questions

4 min setupTested with:ChatGPTReviewed: 2026-08-28
1

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Your prompt

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Turn the long email into a short, complete reply.

Email received:
[email]

Verified decisions, answers, unknowns, and permitted commitments:
[position]

Length, relationship, tone, and required action:
[style]

First identify every explicit question, request, deadline, decision, and material concern in the received email. Draft a concise reply using only the verified response. Combine related answers, remove repeated background, and make unresolved points visible. Do not agree through silence, omit an inconvenient question, or invent an answer to make the reply complete. Preserve material dates, numbers, scope, and conditions. Return: subject if needed; short reply; coverage map of each source item as Answered, Acknowledged, Deferred, or Not applicable; and any blocking unknown.
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From input to outcome

A worked example

See how concrete context turns this recipe into a usable result

Actual input

Email received
Hi Jo—following our calls, can you confirm whether your team can deliver the onboarding copy by 22 May and whether the £3,200 estimate includes two revision rounds? We would also like your team to upload final files directly into our CMS, attend a launch call on 3 June, and translate the copy into French. If all that works, please approve the attached schedule today. We are concerned because the product screenshots may arrive late; could you work with placeholders?
Your verified response
We can deliver English copy by 22 May if screenshots arrive by 15 May; otherwise the date must be reviewed. £3,200 includes two revision rounds. We can use labeled placeholders. CMS upload and French translation are out of scope. We can attend the 3 June call. Do not approve the schedule because no attachment was received.
Length and tone
Under 140 words, friendly and direct. Ask them to resend the schedule and confirm the screenshot date.

Example output

Subject: Onboarding copy scope and schedule

Hi—We can deliver the English onboarding copy by 22 May if the screenshots arrive by 15 May; otherwise we’ll need to review the delivery date. The £3,200 estimate includes two revision rounds, and we can work with clearly labeled placeholders. We can also attend the 3 June launch call.

CMS upload and French translation are outside the current scope. I did not receive the schedule attachment, so I cannot approve it yet. Please resend it and confirm whether the screenshots will arrive by 15 May.

Best, Jo

Coverage: delivery—answered conditionally; revisions—answered; placeholders—answered; launch call—answered; CMS/French—declined; schedule—deferred pending resend; screenshot risk—acknowledged. Blocking unknown: screenshot arrival date and missing attachment.

Why this works

  1. 1

    A source-item map prevents brevity from becoming accidental non-response.

  2. 2

    Supplying the sender's verified position keeps compression separate from decision-making.

Check the result

  • Is every explicit question or request represented in the coverage map?

  • Does the reply preserve all material numbers, dates, and conditions?

  • Could silence on any point be mistaken for agreement?

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