五石六鹢_如何写英文邮件？Principles&Components

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This is a brief note of chapters 1-6 of the following book: Wallwork, A. (2016). English for academic correspondence. Springer.

Two Principles:

• Sufficient information transmission: brief and prioritize the most important information, hence not missing or lost
• Appropriate formality: appropriate degree of distance and formal, hence not offensive or long distancing

Components:

• Subject lines
• Salutations
• Main text
• Topic: Formality
• End
• Topic: Requests & Replies

Subject lines

(CH 1)

Write the subject line imagining that you are the recipient

• A vague subject title such as Meeting time changed is guaranteed to annoy most recipients. They want to know which meeting, and when the new time is. Both these details could easily be contained in the subject line.
• e.g., Project C Kick-Off meeting new time 10.30, Tuesday 5 September

If your recipient knows someone who knows you, then it is not a bad idea to put the name of this common acquaintance in the subject line. This alerts the recipient that this is not a spam message.

• e.g., Prof Huan. Request for internship by engineering PhD student from University of X

Consider using a two-part subject line

• e.g., XTC Workshop: postponed till next year
• e.g., EU project: first draft of the review

Use the subject line to give your complete message: Oct 10 lesson shifted to Oct 17. Usual time and place. EOM. Templates

• Reply to referees’ report: Manuscript No. 5648/AA —Reply to referees
• Request to receive a paper: Request to receive your paper entitled title of paper
• Permission to quote from paper/research etc: Permission to quote your paper entitled paper title
• Request for placement / internship: Request for internship by engineering PhD student from University of X

Do not cc unless it is necessary.

Salutations

(CH 2)

Formal: Dear Professor Smith / Dr Wu / Ms Wu

• Greetings from Eli!

Unknown recipient: To whom it may concern / Dear Sir / Madam

Hi Eli (Hi is very informal, inappropriate to use before 'professsor'. But we can use 'Hi' to friends)

Make sure your recipient’s name is spelled correctly. Look at the other’s person’s signature and cut and paste it into the beginning of your email—that way you will not make any mistakes, but be careful about the format.

• E.g., Dear Professor / Dr Smith, / : /
• You can follow the person’s name by a comma (,), by a colon (:), or with no punctuation at all.

precede this name with an appropriate title When writing to non-academics

• Mr—man (not known if married or not)
• Ms—woman (not known if married or not)
• Mrs—married woman
• Miss—unmarried woman Which is Surname?
• It is still best to continue using Professor Smith until he says, for instance: Please feel free to call me John.
• By the way, it’s Olaf, I am not used to being addressed as Dr. Christensen :).
• The best solution is always to write both names, for example, Dear Stewart James, then there can be no mistake. Address them using exactly the same name (both first and last name) that they use in their signature

Adopt their style and tone.

Either in spelling or in the use of accents (e.g., è, ö, ñ).

Main text

(CH 3, 4, 5)

If you make the assumption that people will only read the first sentence, this will force you to construct an effective email. Prioritize the most important information. Get to the point quickly.

• A lot of research has shown that when native English speakers read, their eyes tend to focus at the beginning and end of the sentence, whereas the middle part of the sentence tends to be read more quickly.

Remind the recipient who you are when the previous contact has only been briefly. Introduce yourself in the first paragraph if you have not met each other before.

• My name is Eli, and you may remember that I came up to you after your presentation yesterday. I asked you the question about X. Well, I was wondering …

If there has been no previous contact, give a reason for your email immediately.

• I would like to have permission to quote part of the experiment from the following paper. (purpose) I am planning to use the extract in my PhD thesis. I will of course, acknowledge the journal, the author…
  
• I attended your presentation last week. Could you kindly give the latest version of your working paper to me if it is convenient for you—thank you. (purpose) By the way, I really enjoyed your talk—it was very interesting and also very pertinent to my field of research, which is …
  
• I am interested in applying for the post of junior scientist advertised on your website. (purpose)
  

If someone is on a mailing list, they may receive hundreds of emails that are not specifically for them. It is thus good practice to begin your email by saying who exactly the email is for and why they should read it, then those who may not be interested can stop reading.

• For Eli, ....
  
• For Andrew, ...
  

Organize the information in the most logical order and only include what is necessary (concise)

• At the moment we are not able to submit the draft manuscript within the deadline of 10 October for the SAE Magnets Congress.

Bear in mind that long emails will be scrolled Make it easy for them to do so by using

• bullets
• bold to highlight important words or requests
• white space to separate items

When you have something negative to say, use the 'sandwich' technique.

Attachment should be explicitly indicated in the main text of your mail.

• You will notice in the attachment that …
  
• on 17th-July-21, at 8:00 am HKT (Hong Kong Time)
  

Ask someone to do something

• If you happen to have the time could you revise the manuscript for me?
  
• If it’s not a problem for you could you revise the manuscript for me?
  
• Would you mind very much revising the manuscript for me?
  

Use common interest to build and cement the relationship

• At the beginning:
  
• Hope you had a good weekend. I spent most of mine cooking.
  
• So how was your weekend? We went swimming—we were the only ones in the sea!
  
• How’s it going? I am completely overloaded with work at the moment.
  
• It could be the end of the mail:
  
• Ciao from a very hot and sunny Pisa.
  
• Hope you have a great weekend—I am going to the beach.
  
• But be careful to respect people’s privacy and not be invasive.
  

Maintain a friendly relationship: Use a more roundabout, softer approach and include an introductory phrase that in some way tones down any aggression.

• I’d just like to remind you that the IP address of a workstation must always be specified.
  
• You appear to have sent us the wrong manuscript.
  
• I was wondering whether you had had a chance to look at the email I sent you.
  
• I appreciate that this is a busy time of year for you but I really do need it now.
  

Advice to non-native speakers when writing English emails (CH5)

• Having short sentences
• helps your recipients locate the key information in your sentence with the minimal mental or visual effort
• makes it much easier for you to delete parts of your email or add parts to it.

• Please should not be followed by a comma.
• Please can you let me know as soon as possible. (neutral)
• Hugo please note that … (neutral)
• avoid ambiguity
• Don't exaggerate or sound insincere
• Be careful how you use pronouns
• they / their can be used with reference to singular subjects (e.g., someone , a person , some guy)
• he / she and his / her can be used as an alternative to he and his

• If your career in some way depends on the email, then ensure you have it revised by a native English speaker.

Topic: Formality

(CH 4）

Two extremes:

• feeling of distance and formal
• close and informal

Signs of formality:

cold, long and complex sentences

Modal verbs

• I’m sorry but I won’t be able to give you any feedback on your manuscript until next week. (cannot) would like (want)
  
• You may also check the status of your manuscript by logging into your account at http://manuscript.zzxx.com/account. (can)
  
• The use of shall as a future auxiliary and should as a conditional auxiliary is outdated in English, and their use is a sure sign of formality.
  
• We shall give your request our prompt attention.
  
• = We will deal with your request as soon as possible. I should be glad if you could send the file again, this time as a pdf.
  
• = Please could you send the file again, this time as a pdf.
  

Nouns

• The English language is essentially verb-based. Many other languages are noun-based. When there is a predominance of nouns rather than verbs, it gives an email a feeling of distance and formality.
  
• Please inform me of the time of your arrival.
  
• To the best of our knowledge.
  

Multi-syllable words

A clear sign that an email is informal is when the subject of the verb and/or the auxiliary are missing.

Abbreviations and acronyms

• Some abbreviations are perfectly acceptable even in a formal email, such as re (regarding) and C / A (bank current account). Others, however, such as ack (acknowledge, acknowledgment), tx (thanks), and rgds (regards), should be used with caution—they give the impression that you could not find the time to write the words out in full.

A smiley is a clear indication of informality.

No imperatives.

• However, when you are giving a formal list of instructions, these will generally be quicker and easier to follow in the form of imperatives (i.e., the infinitive form of the verb without to ). E.g., Attach your application form to your email.

End

(CH 2)

Keep it brief Complimentary Close: Add a friendly phrase at the end of an email

• Formal: Thanking you in advance. / I look forward to hearing from you soon.
• Informal: Have a nice day. / Have a nice weekend.
• Say hello to … / Please send my regards to …

Signature

• More formal
• Best regards, / Regards,
• Eli

• More closed
• Best, / All the best / Speak to you soon.
• Eli

Topic: Requests & Replies

(CH 6)

Lay out your request clearly

• Please can you answer the following questions: 1. ...; 2. ... Don't assume that the reader will understand the importance of or reason for your request
• I was wondering whether you could do me a favour.
• The situation, what you have done, the problem you met, the request, the importance of the request.
• The paper we co-wrote has been accepted for publication, but is subject to a review of the English language.
• I contacted a professional editing agency, but they want 375 euros to do the job, which to me seems a little excessive.
• Would you mind reading through the paper and making corrections using 'Track Changes' on Word?
• As you can imagine, research funds here in Spain are very limited, so anything you could do to help would be much appreciated.

Motivate the recipient to reply by empathizing with their situation or by paying them a compliment

• Examples:
• Sorry to bother you but …
• I have heard that you have a mountain of work at the moment but …
• Any feedback you may have, would be very much appreciated. Give the recipient all the information they need

Consider not sending an attachment to someone with whom you have had no previous contact

Decide whether it might be better just to make one request rather than several

• Generally speaking, when we receive several requests within the same email, we tend to respond to the request or requests that is/are easiest to deal with, and ignore the others.

For multiple requests, include a mini summary at the end of the email

• Summary:

1. Internship for PhD students?
2. Your results
3. Seminars in November

• I look forward to hearing from you.

Give deadlines: You will increase your chances of people responding to your requests if you give them a specific deadline.

Insert friendly comments within the body of the sender’s text

• e.g.,
• Hi Paolo
• I hope you had a good trip back to Pisa.
• Unfortunately, there was a three-hour delay due to fog, but anyway, I got home safely.

The end

五石六鹢_如何写英文邮件？Principles & Components

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