时间:2018-12-30 作者:英语课 分类:词汇大师(Wordmaster)


英语课

  AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: e-mail etiquette 1.

RS: Wendi Eldh [pron. ell'd] conducts business training programs. One of them focuses on helping 2 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 minor 3, little things that one or two more taps on the keyboard soften 4 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 narrative 5 formats 7, 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 misuse 8 e-mail because they try to have long conversations over complex things in a written format 6. Why not pick up the phone, have a half an hour conversation and then recap it in a concise 9 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 attachment 10, 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 err 11 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.



n.礼仪,礼节;规矩
  • 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。
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
  • 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。
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
  • 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。
v.(使)变柔软;(使)变柔和
  • 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。
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的
  • 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。
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
  • 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。
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)
  • 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
n.误用,滥用;vt.误用,滥用
  • 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。
adj.简洁的,简明的
  • 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。
n.附属物,附件;依恋;依附
  • 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。
vi.犯错误,出差错
  • 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。
学英语单词
afetal
against one's grain
ammoresinol
amur cork-tree
anisomorphism
antiatherosclerosis
apple orchard
Bernhardt, Sarah
bheurs
binary code element set
blast air receiver
bounded uniform space
buffalograsses
cold reserve
collision avoidance radar
commotional
comparisons
data enable
Deaur. pil.
delay, node
dimorphic colony
disintergation
disulfocyanic acid
dual lens
education on demand
electric coil
Eugenia jambos
extranuclear nucleolus
fermionized
fillet brazing
film (conductance) coefficient
fischer rat (f344)
fixed on
Flos Chrysanthemi Indici
fluprednisolone
forced-circulation steam generator
fuer in fait
give someone the bum's rush
glucoverodoxin
high frequency communication
houchen
Ipomoea pavonii
IS10
iterative attenuation coefficient
keran
Knox, Henry
lamellibranchiate dentition
light bulb torus
local mean noon
lock stitch
Mach region
manang
micklethwait
mitospores
monel clad steel
monodichlamydeous
Mullaghbeg
multiple lipoma
multiply operation
myotenositis
nonindicating controller
nonproteogenic
oberkirchers
original horizontality
palmula
paracaecal
partially ordered set
Parvex
pilot (control) port
piozzis
platin-
productive procrastination
quick-response voltage control
recoil species
sandpapered nails
Schmidt corrector
screw up one's courage
self regulation
sensory rhizotomy of trigeminal nerve
short-hand
shotaro
sight ramp
single sensor
stagiaires
support(ing) skirt
syllogismhood
take freedoms with sb
theory of limit
tithes
to make sb acquainted with...
traveling comfort
trigesimal
turi
tweaky
twisting paper
uncellable bonds
unreversing
us-installeds
valve grinding emerypaste
VSEPR theory
vulgar latins
water-damage cargo