The Etiquette of Replying to E-mail

回復電子郵件的禮儀

陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他在走廊上遇見了美國同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

C:Amy，我找了你一整天。

A:What is it?

C:我有個關于電子郵件的問題。每次我回信，都是點擊Relpy, 保留原來的內容，然后把我的答復加上去。

A:That's not unusual.

C:今天有個同事告訴我，說我不應該保留電子郵件里原來的內容。可我不明白，如果刪掉原來的內容，她怎么能知道我在說些什么呢？

A:She no doubt would have preferred that you take the time to paraphrase her message in 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:你能舉個例子嗎？比如說，她發電子郵件給我，問我星期三上午11點有沒有時間開會討論新產品。

A:In that case, instead of hitting "Reply" and responding, "Yes, I am available;" you should write, "Yes, I am available to meet on Wednesday at 11 AM to discuss the new product."

C:就是把話說完整。

A:Yes. By restating her message, you have confirmed that you will be at the meeting on the right day at the right time.

C:照你的話說，出于禮貌，我在回復電子郵件的時候，都應該把原來信里的核心內容重復一遍了？

A:Yes, In that case you can delete the original at the bottom of your response. I have to go now. Do you want to continue this discussion at another time?

C:好。下次再聊吧。

MC:第二天早上陳豪和Amy一起喝咖啡。

C:昨天那個同事還說，如果電子郵件的內容變了，用回復的功能，就不能保留原來的題目。是這樣嗎？

A:She is definitely right. It is very confusing to receive a message from someone who changed the subject in the e-mail and not in the subject line.

C:你能不能解釋一下。

A:If I send you a message about a project we are working on and I use "Project A Summary" as the subject line, you have a clear expectation about what information is contained in the e-mail.

C:我用回復的功能，告訴你我收到了報告。

A:Right. Now let's say that I need to send you a message about our next team meeting. If I use your reply to me—which you recall has the subject line, "Project Summary"; you expect to read more about the project.

C:對啊，我會以為里面是關于這個項目更詳細的內容，但打開卻發現是截然不同的內容。好，我以后一定記住改掉電子郵件的題目。

A:Better yet, if you are sending e-mail on a new topic, start a new message with a new subject header.