BEC高级情景口语:TheEtiquetteofReplyingtoE-mail
陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他在走廊上遇见了美国同事Amy。
(Office ambience)
C:Amy, 我找了你一整天。
A:What is it?
C:我有个关于电子邮件的问题。每次我回信,都是点击Relpy, 保留原来的内容,然后把我的答复加上去。
A:That’s not unusual.
C:今天有个同事告诉我,说我不应该保留电子邮件里原来的内容。可我不明白,如果删掉原来的内容,她怎么能知道我在说些什么呢?
A:She no doubt would have preferred that you take the time to paraphrase her messagein the body of your reply.
C:什么叫paraphrase啊?
A:To paraphrase means to rephrase or restate what someone else has said or written.
C:你能举个例子吗?比如说,她发电子邮件给我,问我星期三上午11点有没有时间开会讨论新产品。
A:In that case, instead of hitting "Reply" and responding, "Yes, I am available;" youshould write, "Yes, I am available to meet on Wednesday at 11 AM to discuss the newproduct."
C:就是把话说完整。
A:Yes. By restating her message, you have confirmed that you will be at the meeting onthe right day at the right time.
C:照你的话说,出于礼貌,我在回复电子邮件的时候,都应该把原来信里的核心内容重复一遍了?
A:Yes, In that case you can delete the original at the bottom of your response. I have togo now. Do you want to continue this discussion at another time?
C:好。下次再聊吧。
******
MC:第二天早上陈豪和Amy一起喝咖啡。
C:昨天那个同事还说,如果电子邮件的内容变了,用回复的功能,就不能保留原来的题目。是这样吗?
A:She is definitely right. It is very confusing to receive a message from someone whochanged the subject in the e-mail and not in the subject line.
C:你能不能解释一下。
A:If I send you a message about a project we are working on and I use "Project ASummary" as the subject line, you have a clear expectation about what information iscontained in the e-mail.
C:我用回复的功能,告诉你我收到了报告。
A:Right. Now let’s say that I need to send you a message about our next team meeting. IfI use your reply to me - which you recall has the subject line, "Project Summary"; you expect toread more about the project.
C:对啊,我会以为里面是关于这个项目更详细的内容,但打开却发现是截然不同的内容。好,我以后一定记住改掉电子邮件的题目。
A:Better yet, if you are sending e-mail on a new topic, start a new message with a newsubject header.