So, I certainly wasn&#x27;t trying to claim that the letter was a well-written persuasive one.  However, I was more shocked with the implication that engineering management can&#x27;t be expected to read past the first line of a memo if it doesn&#x27;t hook them.<p>In most organizations I&#x27;ve worked in (generally large ones), the rank-and-file engineers&#x2F;scientists are below-average communicators (a stereotype, I know, but it&#x27;s been true).  They choose the wrong level of technical detail for their audience (or send it to such a large cross-section of people that there is no appropriate level for everyone).  They certainly make grammatical mistakes.  It&#x27;s up to engineering management (who are generally better communicators) to pull the salient bits out of the communication and then pass that up the chain in a more clear manner.  I certainly can&#x27;t imagine a manager going &quot;well, Darren&#x27;s letter that warned me of a likely loss of human life used &#x27;insure&#x27; instead of &#x27;ensure&#x27;, so I&#x27;m just going to assume that the rest of it is drivel and go on about my day&quot;.<p>Your way would certainly have been better.  Related note, one of the best writing classes I ever took with regard to its effect on my current work was actually a journalism class.  The notion not to bury the lede has been key as attention spans wane (apparently more than I&#x27;d realized).