📖 Lesson content
Letter vs. Spirit — Interactive
Make it shorter Make it more professional Add more detail Summary
Your colleague forwards you this email and asks you to "make it shorter."
From: Jordan Reyes
To: Marcus Chen
Subject: Following up on Q2 roadmap
Hope your week is going well! I wanted to circle back on the Q2 roadmap discussion from last Tuesday. The team has been digging into the three proposed directions and we've landed on a recommendation, though there are some tradeoffs worth flagging. We think the platform consolidation path makes the most sense given the resourcing constraints, but it does mean pushing the mobile redesign to Q3. Would love to get your sign-off before we finalize with the broader team on Friday. Happy to hop on a call if that's easier.
See the literal result →
Every instruction has a gap between letter and spirit. You close it by stating the goal.
"Make it shorter"
You meant: surface the ask for a skimmer.
"Make it more professional"
You meant: reframe for a different audience and channel.
"Add more detail"
You meant: expand only what drives a decision.
🔁 Related lessons
- Next: When Properties Collide
- Previous: Steerability
- Same section: Steerability
- Part of paths: Path B
- Reference docs: Glossary · Skills atlas · By use-case
📚 Source & attribution
- Original Anthropic Academy lesson: https://anthropic.skilljar.com/ai-capabilities-and-limitations/456460
- © 2025 Anthropic. Educational fair-use only.