寫email,正式語氣還是口語?
看你寫給誰,如果你的對象是公司內部的人,寫法上較直接(informal),若是彼此很要好,甚至夾雜口語、俚語,也用不完整句型,譬如:”Will give you a ring tomorrow”。
對外的寫法,通常較客氣、避開口語,用字謹慎,注重信頭稱謂、信尾敬詞,和內容結構,寫法上較正式(formal)。
這兩者措詞上的幾個差異:
Informal: “If you’ve got any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.”
Formal: “If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.”
Informal: “The project goes over the budget.”
Formal: “The project exceeds the budget.”
Informal: “Will fill you in on the results soon as I hear the news.”
Formal: “I will inform you of the results as soon as I hear the news.”
下面是一封公司內部的郵件:
Dear Jonny, Danny,
Hello, how are you? busy as usual?
here are the changes we made so far after the meeting.
could you please review the changes and re-send the document (all pages to be sure) back to me by fax please?
this is very important so could you please send me the pages as soon as possible.
Thank you very much for your help.
同樣的內容,假設收件者為公司以外的人,可以改成類似下面的正式寫法:
Dear Messers Ng and Wong,
It was good to meet with you both last Thursday. We had a great discussion and accomplished our objectives.
Following the meeting, I have revised the document and attached it for your review.
As we are working on a tight schedule, I would appreciate it if you could fax the document back to me along with your comments by this Friday.
Best regards,
J.J. Chen
Project Coordinator
看的出來,對企業外部的email,尤其是不熟的對象,用字、架構格外嚴謹。雖然如此,工作email的本質不變,內容盡量精簡、扼要。