To send this response to someone who's sent me a 3000 word email

[milliec]

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a bit rude, but then so is sending a 3000 word email. Madness.

hmmm, can't you just talk to each other? much quicker

who the hell send emails of 750 words (let alone 3000) agree with EffiePerine - Madness.

erm, did you count the words?

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LOL Millie. Fair enough.

When my job involved considering potential PhD students I used to regularly receive massive portfolios when all I really needed was a quick abstract to see if the topic was suitable for our department, so we cooked up a form of words saying we were 'unable' to consider anything longer than a page.
Untrue really, because we could perfectly well have read them, but it sounded politer than saying we couldn't be bothered.

3000 words, I'm not sure I even say that much in a day. Not rude of you but rather self important of the wordy emailler.

Sounds like a scam. I'd ignore it, otherwise they'll know they've sent it to a real address and send you more.

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Did they reply?

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Do you have to reply at all? I'd delete and feign ignorance if there was any chase up.

My reply would have been two words only. You are a model of politeness and good breeding.

Agree you can't begin to read/digest a proposal of that length. However, feel a bit bad for the poor bloke who obviously put a tremendous amount of effort into his presentation.

Is there anything regarding what format should be used in your grant application information? Would think it would be wise (and humane) to give some perameters - might prevent you being faced with this again, and might prevent some poor sod writing a novella!

Did he put effort in though, or did he cut and paste randomly and attach things that were vaguely relevant that he had used for something else?
I generally find the longer it is, the less relevant....

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how does the saying go?

"sorry for writing such a long letter, i didn't have the time to write a short one"

as in it is FAR easier to send lots of info rather than actually think about what you are trying to get across and condensing it into a manageable piece of communication for the recipient.