雙語職場(chǎng)：六步教你寫出漂亮的郵件

　　If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you have an email account. You may well have several – perhaps separate accounts for professional and personal contacts。

　　如果你正在閱讀這篇文章，你肯定有一個(gè)或若干個(gè)甚至是不同帳號(hào)的私人或辦公郵箱。

　　It’s easy to assume that we know how to use email effectively: it’s been around for long enough. But if you find yourself struggling to communicate effectively by email, these six tips should help:

　　郵件這樣的溝通方式早已經(jīng)滲入到了我們的生活工作中，因此可以說大多數(shù)人都能有效地使用郵件與他人交流。但如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)自己還沒做得足夠有效，我想以下這六點(diǎn)可以幫到你：

　　1. Start With an Appropriate Salutation

　　郵件開頭稱呼要恰當(dāng)：

　　Some people jump straight into the text of an email without so much as a “hi”. It’s polite to add a salutation, just as you would with a letter. That might look like:

　　有些人寫郵件不喜歡加稱呼，甚至連簡(jiǎn)單的“你好”都忽略，直接開始正文內(nèi)容。孰不知就像在傳統(tǒng)的信件上一樣，寫上稱呼是一種禮貌的象征。稱呼可以這樣寫：

　　#Dear Sir/Madam 親愛的先生/女士

　　#Dear Mr. Johnson 親愛的約翰遜先生

　　#Hi Sue 蘇，你好

　　#Hello Fred 你好，福瑞德

　　Your salutation needs to be appropriate. If you’re writing to a prospective employer, “Dear Mr. Johnson” is probably the best way to go. “Hi Bob” is going to look unprofessional。

　　稱呼必須恰當(dāng)。若郵件對(duì)象是你未來的上司，“親愛的約翰先生”這樣的稱呼應(yīng)該為最得體的。像“你好，鮑勃”更適用于隨意的場(chǎng)合。

　　But don’t assume that formality is always the right answer. If you’re writing to a friend of a friend, using “Dear” plus their surname is going to seem oddly stilted。

　　那么，是不是正式的用語就萬能呢？絕對(duì)不是。若你給你朋友的朋友寫郵件，那用“親愛的+姓”就顯得異常別扭。

　　If in doubt, “Dear [first name]” will usually work just fine。

　　當(dāng)你判斷不出哪種場(chǎng)合該用什么稱呼合適，你可以使用“親愛的+名”來應(yīng)付所有情況。

　　2. Get Straight to the Point

　　直奔主題

　　Your correspondent won’t want to wade through paragraphs of waffle – so get straight to the point. If you’re writing to someone out of the blue, don’t give them your life story before you make a request。

　　相信閱讀你郵件的人不會(huì)愿意仔細(xì)瀏覽你那空洞無聊的長(zhǎng)篇大論，所以你需要直奔主題。如果你想寫封郵件安慰某個(gè)心靈受傷的朋友，開頭先把你的建議亮出來，然后再用你的親身經(jīng)歷來輔助說明。

　　Getting straight to the point might mean that the first line of your email (after the salutation) looks something like this:

　　直奔主題意味著郵件內(nèi)容的第一行應(yīng)該是這樣：

　　#I’m working on an article about Acme Widgets for XYZ publication, and wondered if you had a few minutes to answer the following three questions。

　　我現(xiàn)在正在寫一篇要交給某某出版社關(guān)于極致控件的文章，不知道您有沒有時(shí)間回答3個(gè)問題呢？

　　#Could you supply me with a quote for the following project?

　　可否對(duì)下面的設(shè)計(jì)項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行引證？

　　#I’d like to discuss the revisions with you. Would Tuesday at 2pm be a good time?

　　我想和你談?wù)勑抻喌氖隆＿@周二下午兩點(diǎn)您有空嗎？

　　#I’ve attached the documents you requested at our meeting yesterday。

　　昨天會(huì)議上您要求的文件已附上，請(qǐng)查收。

　　You may well need to include more details, but if you put the important point up front, your email is more likely to get a timely response. If your question comes too far down, the recipient may not even realise that you need a reply。

　　當(dāng)然，你需要再增加更多的細(xì)節(jié)內(nèi)容。若將郵件重點(diǎn)放到內(nèi)容的開頭，你將收到更加及時(shí)的回復(fù)信息。如果你的問題在郵件后頭，收信人可能都不會(huì)意識(shí)到你在等他回復(fù)。

　　3. Keep it Short

　　內(nèi)容言簡(jiǎn)意賅

　　Try to keep your email as short as possible. Make the paragraphs short, too – long paragraphs can be difficult to read and take in。

　　盡可能將你的郵件內(nèi)容寫得簡(jiǎn)單明了。文章太長(zhǎng)不易閱讀和吸收。

　　Do make sure you give enough information for your correspondent to be able to make a decision, if that’s required. You might find that it’s best to offer this as an attachment – you’ll have more flexibility over formatting, and your correspondent can print out the attachment easily。

　　若對(duì)方需要通過你的郵件來做決策，那你一定要在郵件中將相關(guān)信息寫完整。為了能更靈活地排版，你可以把這些信息作成附件形式，以方便對(duì)方將其打印出來。

　　4. Use Numbered Points

　　將內(nèi)容編號(hào)

　　If you’ve got several questions or points to make, it’s very helpful to number them. This makes it easy for the other person to respond to each one, especially if some just require a yes/no response or a single word answer. For instance:

　　對(duì)于那些為了咨詢或提供各種問題的郵件，最好將問題一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)的列舉出來，以便于他人對(duì)每個(gè)問題作答，尤其當(dāng)某些人更傾向于對(duì)問題只回答“是”和“否”的時(shí)候。例如：

　　#Could you let me know:

　　能否告知：

　　#1. How much it would cost for the website design

　　1. 網(wǎng)站設(shè)計(jì)費(fèi)用

　　#2. How much for the website design plus a tri-fold brochure

　　2. 網(wǎng)頁設(shè)計(jì)加一份三頁宣傳冊(cè)的費(fèi)用

　　#3. Whether you could complete #2 by the end of April

　　3. 您能否在四月底完成第二點(diǎn)所述工作？

　　It’s also useful to list your questions or points as bullets in this way; if you write a single paragraph, some of your questions might get missed。

　　將你的問題或觀點(diǎn)用圖標(biāo)的方式羅列出來是很實(shí)用的，倘若你用一段話將幾個(gè)點(diǎn)全部涵蓋，那對(duì)方有可能會(huì)漏看其中的幾點(diǎn)。

　　5. Re-read and Use Spell-Check

　　重新閱讀一篇，校對(duì)拼寫錯(cuò)誤

　　A typo or spelling mistake can turn one word into an entirely different one. If you’re using email in a professional capacity, that mistake could be embarrassing – or even offensive. It might alter the whole meaning of your email: a missing “not”， for instance, could potentially cause problems。

　　排版或拼寫錯(cuò)誤有時(shí)能導(dǎo)致對(duì)一個(gè)單詞的誤解。尤其當(dāng)你用郵件來溝通專業(yè)性內(nèi)容時(shí)，這樣的錯(cuò)誤就很尷尬，甚至有些失禮。它可能改變你整個(gè)郵件的意思。比如：少寫了個(gè)“不”，就可能會(huì)引起某些問題。

　　Spell-check should help you avoid any silly mistakes – but use your eyes and brain too. There are plenty of words that spell-check won’t pick up. If you’re emailing from a device with predictive text and an auto-correct feature, make sure you always re-read what you’ve typed。

　　因此檢查拼寫將避免你犯這些低級(jí)錯(cuò)誤，但這里強(qiáng)調(diào)——不僅僅用眼睛檢查，還得用大腦思考。有些錯(cuò)誤不一定能輕易檢查出來。如果你的郵件系統(tǒng)有字句聯(lián)想功能和自動(dòng)糾錯(cuò)功能，一定要把寫出來的內(nèi)容再通讀檢查一遍。

　　6. Make Your Signature Useful

　　充分利用郵件簽名

　　Do you have an email signature? (That’s the text that appears automatically at the bottom of your email。) Some people don’t use one at all; others have a funny quote or favorite saying。

　　你設(shè)置過郵件簽名嗎(它將會(huì)在你每次郵件內(nèi)容的下方自動(dòng)生成)？有些人從來都沒有使用過它，但我們也看過一些非常有意思和哲理的簽名。

　　Whether you’re using email for professional or personal reasons, make your signature useful for both you and your recipient. That might mean:

　　無論你是為了工作還是私人聊天，加注簽名對(duì)你和郵件接收者都有好處，因?yàn)檫@意味著可以：

　　Giving the link to your website

　　加上你的網(wǎng)頁鏈接

　　Including your work address and/or phone number

　　寫上你的工作地址或電話號(hào)碼

　　Adding links to your social media accounts

　　注上你的社會(huì)媒體工具帳號(hào)(例如博客，微博，論壇)

　　Putting in a line to promote your recent book / blog / product

　　宣傳你最新的書籍，博文或產(chǎn)品

　　If your email provider allows it, you may even want to create several signatures to use for different purposes (e.g. one for emailing friends, one for new business contacts)。

　　有些郵箱甚至還提供用戶根據(jù)不同目的設(shè)計(jì)不同簽名的服務(wù)(比如：一個(gè)對(duì)朋友使用，一個(gè)對(duì)新結(jié)識(shí)的企業(yè)伙伴使用)。