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(guān)于電子郵件的問題。每次我回信，都是點擊Relpy, 保留原來的內(nèi)容，然后把我的答復(fù)加上去。

A：That's not unusual.

C：今天有個同事告訴我，說我不應(yīng)該保留電子郵件里原來的內(nèi)容?？晌也幻靼?，如果刪掉原來的內(nèi)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(fā)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(chǎn)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(fù)電子郵件的時候，都應(yīng)該把原來信里的核心內(nèi)容重復(fù)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(nèi)容變了，用回復(fù)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(fù)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(guān)于這個項目更詳細(xì)的內(nèi)容，但打開卻發(fā)現(xiàn)是截然不同的內(nèi)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.