高效英文电子邮件的7条守则

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.

无论是你的客户还是同事都不会有时间仔细查阅每一封收到的邮件。他们之中有些人每天会收到成百上千的消息。这就是他们会从那些能够快速处理的信息开始的原因。他们可能永远抽不出时间来答复——甚至阅读——剩下的那些。

So how do you earn their attention? Try these tips:

那么应该如何赢得他们的注意呢？试试这些小妙招吧：

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.

坚持使用标准大写和标点符号。优良的写作传统对电子邮件而言看似是浪费时间，尤其是当你使用掌上设备敲打出信息的时候。但问题在于正确书写，包括细节。就算你们组的人并不在邮件中大写或加标点符号，这么做的人将会脱颖而出。那些仓促完成的电子邮件违背写作语言基本准则，显示出了作者的粗心大意。而且他们简略的写作风格又会令人费解。第一次就写一封清晰的邮件比接着解释你想说的要节约更多时间。

Get straight to the point (politely, of course).Be 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.

开门见山（当然，要有礼貌）。当你有所要求的时候就直言不讳地表达。不要对对方阿谀奉承——虽然说简洁的恭维还是有好处的（“很棒的面试。感谢您邮件。我能请您帮个忙吗？”）。讲清楚截止日期以及收件人正确按时完成工作所需要的其它细节。

Be brief — but not too brief.People 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.

简洁明了——但也不要过于简洁。大家都觉得冗长的电子邮件是令人厌烦且消耗精力的。收件人要滚动鼠标或是滑动屏幕的次数越多，他们回复你邮件的几率就越小。他们很有可能只扫一眼过你的邮件，漏掉了重要的信息——或者直接就不看了。因此，尽量不要让邮件超过一屏。注重内容，简练语言。

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.

但是当你在精简你的邮件的时候，保留必要的信息。比如当你给出一份项目的更新时，要提供足够的背景信息来指引你的收件人。从对方的角度来考虑如何写你的邮件。他们不会像你一样全神贯注于这个项目，而且他们可能同时有其他事情要处理。所以当你发送更新内容的时候记得要提示他们上次是在哪里停止的，并且要描述一下从那以后发生了些什么。

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.

列出关于什么事件、何时发生的提纲。当一场严重的纠纷在公司内发生，律师往往会要求他们的客户制作一份“相关事宜时间表”，详细记述在纠纷发生前的最重要的事件。这份文件能够帮助每一个参与人员更加清晰地思考事情是如何发生的。在你写电子邮件的时候，试试相同的方法。这会帮助你组织你的想法成为连贯的叙述。比起夹杂着观点的混乱事实，一个有着清晰的开头、中间、结尾的文章能够更加有效地引起对方的兴趣。

Add a short but descriptive subject line.Before 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.

补充一行短小却具有描述性的主题。在点击“发送”之前，检查一下你的主题。如果这一行是万金油式的文字或者空着，你的邮件将会在收件人的塞得过满的收件箱中被淹没。你是否要求对方采取措施？在标题行中强调这一点。这样能够使得你的要求很容易被找到——和实现。

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.

抄送须谨慎。只要抄送给那些会立刻意识到为什么自己会收到这封邮件的人们；不要不假思索地就点击“全部回复”。如果你没及时改正这个错误的话，你的邮件可能会有过多的抄送行，你将会继续惹恼本不应该收到这封邮件的收件人。而且除非你确定这有必要，否则不要使用密件抄送。这可能会给你带来轻率的坏名声。