The Etiquette of Replying to E-mail

回复电子邮件的礼仪

陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他在走廊上遇见了美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

C:Amy，我找了你一整天。

A:What is it?

C:我有个关于电子邮件的问题。每次我回信，都是点击Relpy, 保留原来的内容，然后把我的答复加上去。

A:That's not unusual.

C:今天有个同事告诉我，说我不应该保留电子邮件里原来的内容。可我不明白，如果删掉原来的内容，她怎么能知道我在说些什么呢？

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:你能举个例子吗？比如说，她发电子邮件给我，问我星期三上午11点有没有时间开会讨论新产品。

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:就是把话说完整。

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:照你的话说，出于礼貌，我在回复电子邮件的时候，都应该把原来信里的核心内容重复一遍了？

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:第二天早上陈豪和Amy一起喝咖啡。

C:昨天那个同事还说，如果电子邮件的内容变了，用回复的功能，就不能保留原来的题目。是这样吗？

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:你能不能解释一下。

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:我用回复的功能，告诉你我收到了报告。

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:对啊，我会以为里面是关于这个项目更详细的内容，但打开却发现是截然不同的内容。好，我以后一定记住改掉电子邮件的题目。

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