词汇大师-- With E-mail, a Few More Keyboard Taps

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: e-mail etiquette¹.
RS: Wendi Eldh [pron. ell'd] conducts business training programs. One of them focuses on helping² clients communicate by e-mail, which is harder than you might think.

　　WENDI ELDH: "We know that e-mail tends to be misread about fifty percent of the time, the tone of the e-mail."
RS: "How do you know that tone?"
WENDI ELDH: "Have you ever received an e-mail that said something like 'Send me this tomorrow.' And the person sending it was in a good mood, maybe a little busy, and just thought 'You know, she'll get it.' And you receive it and think 'Wait a minute, we are peers, why are you commanding me to do this?'"
AA: "If that sentence had started with 'Please send me,' would that have -- "
WENDI ELDH: "Absolutely."
AA: " -- solved the problem?"
WENDI ELDH: "There are such minor³, little things that one or two more taps on the keyboard soften⁴ the tone."
RS: "So what do you think are the major problems?"
WENDI ELDH: " People don't use complete sentences. They don't lead with their main idea. And the other thing that will happen is people will write narrative⁵ formats⁷, they'll write paragraphs in an e-mail, when in fact something like three bullet points or three numbers -- one, two, three -- would be a more effective way of conveying that I need three things from you or that I'm sharing three things with you.
"And I would say the last thing besides the tonal issues -- not being polite, not using please -- I think people misuse⁸ e-mail because they try to have long conversations over complex things in a written format⁶. Why not pick up the phone, have a half an hour conversation and then recap it in a concise⁹ way that we both can agree to?"
RS: "It's not only that. It's pushing 'send' before you should."
WENDI ELDH: "I would agree with that. So one of my biggest tips that I tell people: Don't put the person that you're sending the e-mail's name, don't put it in the 'to' line until you've read it, it looks good, it's clear, there's a point, you put on the attachment¹⁰, it's a nice solid piece of business writing. Then you put in the person's name and then you send it."
AA: "That's a good way to avoid, yeah, sending a note to the wrong person or sending it before it's completed. I know you say some other considerations are context and, well, brevity. We've talked a little bit about getting to the point, starting off with the most important elements. What about context, how does that play a role in an e-mail?"
WENDI ELDH: "Well, you know, when we send e-mails, one of the things that you can do is you can respond with the person's original e-mail or not. And you should almost always respond with the original person's message. The reason for that is, if I don't do that and you say something like 'Wendi, should we go here or should we go there? I say we go here' and I write back and say 'Yes, I agree,' that is a message that has zero context."
RS: "When you talk about etiquette and tone, one of the things that jumps to my mind is when I get an e-mail in all-caps. I feel as if someone's yelling at me."
AA: "Do people still do that?"
WENDI ELDH: "People still do it. It's crazy. I actually received an e-mail recently from a lawyer's office, from a real estate attorney's office, and it was pink and in cursive script. Now nothing shouts 'I'm not a very good attorney' as pink cursive script in an e-mail."
RS: "Our audience is speakers of English as a foreign language. Any tips for them, as they either write to us or write to people in English?"
WENDI ELDH: "I would say that no one is ever going to say to you 'That e-mail was too friendly and too polite.' But people will say the opposite. So what I would say is, if you're going to err¹¹ on one side, err on the side of being formal and polite."
AA: "And what's your preference on using 'dear' -- the salutations and the openings and the closings, 'dear' and 'sincerely,' just as you would in a printed business letter, or not?"
WENDI ELDH: "I think as in anything else in life, when we tailor our communication to our intended audience, we're going to be much more successful with that communication. So, for example, if I write to a person and I say 'Dear Mr. Whomever' or 'Dear Dr. Whomever,' and he writes back to me, or she writes back to me, in a very formal sort of way, that person has sent me a signal. If they write back and say 'Hey, Wendi, thanks so much for the information,' they've now sent me a signal. They want me to lower down the formality of my e-mail a little bit."
RS: Writing trainer Wendi Eldh. And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
AA: You can find our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 etiquette   

n.礼仪，礼节；规矩

参考例句：

• The rules of etiquette are not so strict nowadays.如今的礼仪规则已不那么严格了。
• According to etiquette,you should stand up to meet a guest.按照礼节你应该站起来接待客人。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

4 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

5 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

6 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

7 formats   

n.（出版物的）版式( format的名词复数 )；[电视]电视节目的总安排（或计划）

参考例句：

• They are producing books in all kinds of different formats. 他们出版各种不同开本的书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A true GUI includes standard formats for representing text and graphics. 真正的图形用户界面包括表示文字和图形的标准格式。 来自互联网

8 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

9 concise   

adj.简洁的，简明的

参考例句：

• The explanation in this dictionary is concise and to the point.这部词典里的释义简明扼要。
• I gave a concise answer about this.我对于此事给了一个简要的答复。

10 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

11 err   

vi.犯错误，出差错

参考例句：

• He did not err by a hair's breadth in his calculation.他的计算结果一丝不差。
• The arrows err not from their aim.箭无虚发。