Proper Way of Replying to E-mail

陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作，他去找美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

CH：Amy, 我有个问题请教你。

A：I'll be happy to try to answer your question, but I don't have a lot of time. I have a meeting in a few minutes.

CH：就几句话，是关于回电子邮件的。

A：Can you explain what you mean?

C：今天早上，我收到通知，说要开会，让大家回个email, 看能不能参加。我就"reply to all"说能来。

A：What happened?

C：先后有三个人发电子邮件给我，叫我不要把回复的电子邮件寄给他们，好像挺不高兴的。

A：They have a very good point. When you get a message by e-mail to announce a meeting, you should not reply to everyone else who received the e-mail. Your response should go only to the sender.

C：可我也经常会收到没用的电子邮件，我就觉得无所谓。

A：Your reaction may have to do with your laid-back personality.

C：Laid-back personality?

A：Laid-back means easy-going. No one wants to get unnecessary e-mail like the one you sent. You are not being thoughtful of other people's time.

C：我真没意识到别人会介意。

A：In the future think before you reply to all. Oh, I'm sorry, Chen Hao, but I've really got to go.

C：谢谢你，Amy. 我还有个小问题，你散会能给我打个电话吗？

A：Sure. I call you after the meeting.

******

下午陈豪在办公室写报告。

Telephone rang....

C：Good afternoon. Accounting department. This is Chen Hao.

A：Hi CH. I am out of my meeting and wanted to call you before I go home.

C：太好了。我的问题是，我不知道回复电子邮件，什么时候用CC, 什么时候用BCC.

A：You are not alone. Lots of people have the same issue. "CC" means "courtesy copy." You use "CC" whenever you need to inform someone of what is being done but they are not responsible for doing it.

C：你能举个例子吗？

A：When your colleague needs to be sure that you know your duties, he sends the e-mail to you. However he sends a copy to your boss so he knows what is going on. You can see that your boss got the e-mail, too.

C：就是说，如果Kevin让我在星期五之前把报表做完，他可以写个电子邮件给我，然后CC给我老板。那BCC呢？

A："Bcc" stands for "blind "courtesy copy." It's used when you don't want the receiver to know who else got the message.

C：你是说不让收件人知道还有其他收件人吗？

A：That's right. The only time I find "Bcc" acceptable is when you don't want to reveal all the e-mail addresses of the people you are mailing to for security purposes.