工作郵件每天都要發，但寫郵件的“坑”你中了幾個？

You may have received training on giving a good presentation or writing a successful business proposal, but few of us spend as much time learning how to craft a good email. It’s quick and easy, but few of us give much thought to shooting off an email, so that makes it ripe for misuse.

你可能已經接受過有關演示彙報或商業計劃書的培訓，但很少有人花費同樣多的時間來學習如何寫好一封電子郵件。寫郵件既快速又簡單，但寫好郵件後經常有人想也不想就發出去了，所以很容易出現失誤。

“Email is simultaneously messy, imperfect, overwhelming, and impoverished,” says Nick Morgan, author of Can You Hear Me? How to Connect with People in a Virtual World.

《你能聽見嗎？虛擬世界的溝通指南》一書的作者尼克·摩根認爲“郵件會讓溝通變的混亂而無力”。

So before you send your next email, make sure you do these three things:

因此，在你發出下一封電子郵件前，請確保做以下3件事情：

WAIT AT LEAST 60 SECONDS AND READ IT OVER BEFORE YOU HIT SEND

等上至少60秒，並在點發送之前通讀郵件

Because email is a quick tool to use, it’s tempting to shoot one off on the fly, but that often leads to misunderstandings or incomplete information, requiring a few more emails to clear up.

電子郵件是一種便捷的工具，所以很容易發出去，但這通常會導致誤解或信息不完整，然後需要發更多的電子郵件才能講清楚。

“The issue is we feel we never have enough time because we’re buried in email,” says Morgan. “We’re in email hell, and we try to get out by erasing and deleting and responding briefly to those we have to. Ideally you should take more time.”

“問題在於我們覺得時間不夠，因爲電子郵件太多了，”摩根說，“我們正身處電子郵件的地獄，試圖通過刪除或簡要回應必須回覆的郵件來擺脫這一境遇。理想情況下你應該在郵件上花更多時間。”

Write your email and then wait at least 60 seconds before hitting send, says Morgan. “Go back and reread it, edit it, and make sure it is clear,” he says. “Look particularly for emotional clarity. Remember, it is the emotions that are too often lacking in our virtual life, and they are hard to get right in an email.”

摩根說，寫完電子郵件後等上60秒再發送。 “回去重新閱讀、編輯、確保清晰，”他說。 “特別注意情緒的清晰度。請記住，在我們的虛擬生活中經常缺乏這種情緒，而且很難在電子郵件中找到它們。”

TAKE OUT FILLERS AND QUALIFIERS

刪除不必要的用語和修飾語

No one likes a long, rambling email, but one that’s too short has issues, too. “You can forget to explain stuff and as a result create misunderstandings,” says Morgan. “Trying to keep it as short as possible can be a trap and make you feel overwhelmed. Brevity is not a virtue in and of itself, and writing should go as long as necessary.”

沒有人喜歡冗長而雜亂無章的電子郵件，但是篇幅太短的電子郵件也存在問題。“篇幅過短的話，你可能會忘記解釋一些事情，從而導致誤解，”摩根說。“控制郵件篇幅也可能是一個陷阱，讓你感到不知所措。簡潔本身並不是一種美德，寫作還是應該儘可能長。”

While the content may be long, there are tricks to keeping it concise. Take out fillers, qualifiers, adverbs, and adjectives, suggests Morgan. Keep the prose matter-of-fact and clear, and write conversationally, revising as needed.

雖然郵件內容可能很長，但可以利用一些技巧保持內容簡潔。摩根建議刪除不必要的用語、修飾語、副詞和形容詞。保持文章事實準確和條理清晰，保留對話特點，並根據需要進行修改。

“Start an email, a paragraph, and your sentences with the familiar, the old, the agreed-upon,” he says. “Then move to the unfamiliar, the new, the debatable. We only crave a little extra knowledge.”

“用熟悉常用且大家一致能接受的內容開始寫電子郵件、段落和句子。”他說，“然後再寫陌生的、新的和存在爭議的內容。我們只渴求一點額外的知識。”

YOU ARE CONVEYING THE RIGHT TONE

說話語氣要合適

The most important step of crafting a good email is being clear on your intent. “The single most important question to ask is, ‘How does what I just said make you feel?'” says Morgan. “When you talk face to face, the person gets more information from your eyes or body language. In the virtual world, all that is lost.”

寫好電子郵件的最重要一步是明確你的意圖。“你要問的最重要的一個問題是，‘我剛剛說的話讓你有什麼感受？’”摩根說。“當你們面對面交談時，對方會從你的眼睛或肢體語言中獲取更多信息。而在虛擬世界中，這些都將丟失。”

We tend to overestimate both our ability to convey the tone we want to convey in an email, and our ability to judge other people’s tones, says Morgan. “We think we know exactly what other people are trying to say—but we’re wrong,” he says.

摩根表示，我們傾向於高估自己在在電子郵件中表達語氣以及判斷他人語氣的能力。“我們認爲自己確切地知道對方想要說什麼，但我們錯了。”他說。

Research from New York University and the University of Chicago found that people are stuck in their own perspectives, grasping a writer’s intent only 56% of the time.

紐約大學和芝加哥大學的研究發現，人們總是習慣於堅持自己的觀點，只有56％的時間能把握作者意圖。

“The researchers found this solution: Read your emails out loud a few times in different tones, including offended, sarcastic, or angry, before you send it,” says Morgan. “Reading a message in a way you didn’t intend makes it easier for you to step outside your own perspective and appreciate that you might be misinterpreted. That’s the first step toward better communication.”

“研究人員得出了這麼一個解決方案：在郵件發出去之前，用不同的語氣大聲讀出你的郵件內容，包括冒犯，諷刺或生氣的語氣，”摩根說。“以一種你不想要的方式朗讀郵件會讓你更容易走出自己的固有觀點而意識到自己可能會被誤解。這是邁向更好溝通的第一步。”

（翻譯：Frank）