英文解說職場禮儀:Email不能總用回復(53)

　　英文解說職場禮儀：Email不能總用回復(53)

　　陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他在走廊上遇見了美國同事Amy。

　　(Office ambience)

　　C：Amy, 我找了你一整天。

　　A：What is it?

　　C：我有個關於電子郵件的問題。每次我回信，都是點擊Relpy, 保留原來的內容，然後把我的答覆加上去。

　　A：That's not unusual.

　　C：今天有個同事告訴我，說我不應該保留電子郵件裡原來的內容。可我不明白，如果刪掉原來的內容，她怎麼能知道我在說些什麼呢?

　　A：She no doubt would have preferred that you take the time to paraphrase her message in the body of your reply.

　　C：什麼叫paraphrase啊?

　　A：To paraphrase means to rephrase or restate what someone else has said or written.

　　C：你能舉個例子嗎?比如說，她發電子郵件給我，問我星期三上午11點有沒有時間開會討論新產品。

　　A：In that case, instead of hitting "Reply" and responding, "Yes, I am available;" you should write, "Yes, I am available to meet on Wednesday at 11 AM to discuss the new product."

　　C：就是把話說完整。

　　A：Yes. By restating her message, you have confirmed that you will be at the meeting on the right day at the right time.

　　C：照你的話說，出於禮貌，我在回復電子郵件的時候，都應該把原來信裡的核心內容重複一遍了?

　　A：Yes, In that case you can delete the original at the bottom of your response. I have to go now. Do you want to continue this discussion at another time?

　　C：好。下次再聊吧。

　　******

　　MC：第二天早上陳豪和Amy一起喝咖啡。

　　C：昨天那個同事還說，如果電子郵件的內容變了，用回復的功能，就不能保留原來的題目。是這樣嗎?

　　A：She is definitely right. It is very confusing to receive a message from someone who changed the subject in the e-mail and not in the subject line.

　　C：你能不能解釋一下。

　　A：If I send you a message about a project we are working on and I use "Project A Summary" as the subject line, you have a clear expectation about what information is contained in the e-mail.

　　C：我用回復的功能，告訴你我收到了報告。

　　A：Right. Now let's say that I need to send you a message about our next team meeting. If I use your reply to me - which you recall has the subject line, "Project Summary"; you expect to read more about the project.

　　C：對啊，我會以為裡面是關於這個項目更詳細的內容，但打開卻發現是截然不同的內容。好，我以後一定記住改掉電子郵件的題目。

　　A：Better yet, if you are sending e-mail on a new topic, start a new message with a new subject header.

（編輯：薛琳）