高效英文電子郵件的7條守則

Your clients and colleagues don’t have time to engage fully with every e-mail they get. Some of them receive hundreds of messages per day. That’s why they start with the ones they can deal with quickly. They may never get around to answering — or even reading — the rest.
無論是你的客戶還是同事都不會有時間仔細查閱每一封收到的郵件。他們之中有些人每天會收到成百上千的消息。這就是他們會從那些能夠快速處理的信息開始的原因。他們可能永遠抽不出時間來答覆——甚至閱讀——剩下的那些。

So how do you earn their attention? Try these tips:
那麼應該如何贏得他們的注意呢？試試這些小妙招吧：

Stick to standard capitalization and punctuation. Conventions of good writing may seem like a waste of time for e-mail, especially when you’re tapping out messages on a handheld device. But it’s a matter of getting things right — the little things. Even if people in your group don’t capitalize or punctuate in their messages, stand out as someone who does. Rushed e-mails that violate the basic norms of written language bespeak carelessness. And their abbreviated style can be confusing. It takes less time to write a clear message the first time around than it does to follow up to explain what you meant to say.
堅持使用標準大寫和標點符號。優良的寫作傳統對電子郵件而言看似是浪費時間，尤其是當你使用掌上設備敲打出信息的時候。但問題在於正確書寫，包括細節。就算你們組的人並不在郵件中大寫或加標點符號，這麼做的人將會脫穎而出。那些倉促完成的電子郵件違背寫作語言基本準則，顯示出了作者的粗心大意。而且他們簡略的寫作風格又會令人費解。第一次就寫一封清晰的郵件比接着解釋你想說的要節約更多時間。

Get straight to the point (politely, of course) direct when making a request. Don’t butter up the recipient first — although a brief compliment may help (“Great interview. Thanks for sending it. May I ask a favor?”). Spell out deadlines and other details the recipient will need to get the job done right and on time.
開門見山（當然，要有禮貌）。當你有所要求的時候就直言不諱地表達。不要對對方阿諛奉承——雖然說簡潔的恭維還是有好處的（“很棒的面試。感謝您郵件。我能請您幫個忙嗎？”）。講清楚截止日期以及收件人正確按時完成工作所需要的其它細節。

Be brief — but not too le find long e-mails irksome and energy-sapping. The more they have to scroll or swipe, the less receptive they’ll be to your message. They’ll probably just skim it and miss important details — or skip it altogether. So rarely compose more than a single screen of reading. Focus your content, and tighten your language.
簡潔明瞭——但也不要過於簡潔。大家都覺得冗長的電子郵件是令人厭煩且消耗精力的。收件人要滾動鼠標或是滑動屏幕的次數越多，他們回覆你郵件的機率就越小。他們很有可能只掃一眼過你的郵件，漏掉了重要的信息——或者直接就不看了。因此，儘量不要讓郵件超過一屏。注重內容，簡練語言。

But as you’re trimming the fat from your message, keep the meat intact. When giving a project update, for example, supply enough background information to orient your readers. Consider your message from their perspective. They aren’t as immersed in your project as you are, and they probably have many other things going on. So remind them where things stood when you last sent an update, and describe what’s happened since then.
但是當你在精簡你的郵件的時候，保留必要的信息。比如當你給出一份項目的更新時，要提供足夠的背景信息來指引你的收件人。從對方的角度來考慮如何寫你的郵件。他們不會像你一樣全神貫注於這個項目，而且他們可能同時有其他事情要處理。所以當你發送更新內容的時候記得要提示他們上次是在哪裏停止的，並且要描述一下從那以後發生了些什麼。

Plot out what happened, and when. When a serious dispute arises at a company, the lawyers will typically ask their clients to produce a “chronology of relevant events,” detailing the most important incidents leading up to the dispute. This document helps everyone involved think more clearly about how things unfolded. Try taking a similar approach when writing your e-mails. It will help you organize your thoughts into a coherent narrative. A story with a clear beginning, middle, and end will hold your readers’ interest more effectively than jumbled facts interspersed with opinions.
列出關於什麼事件、何時發生的提綱。當一場嚴重的糾紛在公司內發生，律師往往會要求他們的客戶製作一份“相關事宜時間表”，詳細記述在糾紛發生前的最重要的事件。這份文件能夠幫助每一個參與人員更加清晰地思考事情是如何發生的。在你寫電子郵件的時候，試試相同的方法。這會幫助你組織你的想法成爲連貫的敘述。比起夾雜着觀點的混亂事實，一個有着清晰的開頭、中間、結尾的文章能夠更加有效地引起對方的興趣。

Add a short but descriptive subject re hitting “Send,” check your subject line. If it’s generic or blank, your message will get lost in your recipient’s overstuffed inbox. Are you asking someone to take action? Highlight that in the subject line. Make your request easy to find — and fulfill.
補充一行短小卻具有描述性的主題。在點擊“發送”之前，檢查一下你的主題。如果這一行是萬金油式的文字或者空着，你的郵件將會在收件人的塞得過滿的收件箱中被淹沒。你是否要求對方採取措施？在標題行中強調這一點。這樣能夠使得你的要求很容易被找到——和實現。

Copy people judiciously. Include only those who will immediately grasp why they’re on the thread; don’t automatically click on “Reply All.” Your correspondent may have been over inclusive with the “Copy” list, and if you repeat that mistake, you’ll continue to annoy the recipients who shouldn’t be there. And avoid using BCC unless you are quite sure it’s necessary. It could get you a bad reputation as being indiscreet.
抄送須謹慎。只要抄送給那些會立刻意識到爲什麼自己會收到這封郵件的人們；不要不假思索地就點擊“全部回覆”。如果你沒及時改正這個錯誤的話，你的郵件可能會有過多的抄送行，你將會繼續惹惱本不應該收到這封郵件的收件人。而且除非你確定這有必要，否則不要使用密件抄送。這可能會給你帶來輕率的壞名聲。