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.

　　你可能已经接受过有关演示汇报或商业计划书的培训，但很少有人花费同样多的时间来学习如何写好一封电子邮件。写邮件既快速又简单，但写好邮件后经常有人想也不想就发出去了，所以很容易出现失误。

　　“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.

　　《你能听见吗?虚拟世界的沟通指南》一书的作者尼克·摩根认为“邮件会让沟通变的混乱而无力”。

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

　　因此，在你发出下一封电子邮件前，请确保做以下3件事情：

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

　　等上至少60秒，并在点发送之前通读邮件

　　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.

　　电子邮件是一种便捷的工具，所以很容易发出去，但这通常会导致误解或信息不完整，然后需要发更多的电子邮件才能讲清楚。

　　“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.”

　　“问题在于我们觉得时间不够，因为电子邮件太多了，”摩根说，“我们正身处电子邮件的地狱，试图通过删除或简要回应必须回复的邮件来摆脱这一境遇。理想情况下你应该在邮件上花更多时间。”

　　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.”

　　摩根说，写完电子邮件后等上60秒再发送。 “回去重新阅读、编辑、确保清晰，”他说。 “特别注意情绪的清晰度。请记住，在我们的虚拟生活中经常缺乏这种情绪，而且很难在电子邮件中找到它们。”

　　TAKE OUT FILLERS AND QUALIFIERS

　　删除不必要的用语和修饰语

　　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.”

　　没有人喜欢冗长而杂乱无章的电子邮件，但是篇幅太短的电子邮件也存在问题。“篇幅过短的话，你可能会忘记解释一些事情，从而导致误解，”摩根说。“控制邮件篇幅也可能是一个陷阱，让你感到不知所措。简洁本身并不是一种美德，写作还是应该尽可能长。”

　　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.

　　虽然邮件内容可能很长，但可以利用一些技巧保持内容简洁。摩根建议删除不必要的用语、修饰语、副词和形容词。保持文章事实准确和条理清晰，保留对话特点，并根据需要进行修改。

　　“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内容开始写电子邮件、段落和句子。”他说，“然后再写陌生的、新的和存在争议的内容。我们只渴求一点额外的知识。”

　　YOU ARE CONVEYING THE RIGHT TONE

　　说话语气要合适

　　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.”

　　写好电子邮件的最重要一步是明确你的意图。“你要问的最重要的一个问题是，‘我刚刚说的话让你有什么感受?’”摩根说。“当你们面对面交谈时，对方会从你的眼睛或肢体语言中获取更多信息。而在虚拟世界中，这些都将丢失。”

　　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，我们倾向于高估自己在在电子邮件中表达语气以及判断他人语气的能力。“我们认为自己确切地知道对方想要说什么，但我们错了。”他说。

　　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.

　　纽约大学和芝加哥大学的研究发现，人们总是习惯于坚持自己的观点，只有56%的时间能把握作者意图。

　　“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.”

　　“研究人员得出了这么一个解决方案：在邮件发出去之前，用不同的语气大声读出你的邮件内容，包括冒犯，讽刺或生气的语气，”摩根说。“以一种你不想要的方式朗读邮件会让你更容易走出自己的固有观点而意识到自己可能会被误解。这是迈向更好沟通的第一步。”