技巧4：注意受眾中的神秘讀者。任何一本優秀的商業寫作指南都會告訴你，必須考慮到接收你消息的各種不同的讀者群體。例如，如果你正在寫一份并購目標評估報告，公司的首席執行官、董事會以及投資銀行家都可能閱讀這份報告，你知道他們的需求各不相同。更難應對的是神秘讀者——那些你一無所知的讀者。比如，你的某個目標讀者可能(不經意地)將消息轉發給你認為不應該讀取該消息的某個人。請記住網絡版的墨菲定律：“有可能出錯的事情總會出錯。”另外一個例子就是在你和目標管理者之間充當哨兵的個人助理，這些人會瀏覽和過濾所有來信。遇到這種情況時，你可以先寫一封郵件作掩護，專門讓助理去處理。不要忘了，一份文件可能會儲存很長時間，有可能在幾年后才會被不知原委的人閱讀，因而可能出現誤解。所以要充分考慮神秘讀者的存在，以及如何進行應對。

　　Tip 4. Beware of the mystery readers in your audience.Every guide on business writing worth its salt will tell you that you have to take into account the various reader segments that your text is addressing. For example, if you’re writing an assessment of an acquisition target, you know that both your CEO, your company’s Board and their investment banker, each with different needs, may read it. Much more tricky to deal with are the mystery readers — that is those you don’t know about. For example, one of your targeted readers may (inadvertently) forward your text to a person who in your mind should be the last to read it. Remember the cyberversion of Murphy’s infamous law that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Another example is the personal assistant who stands as a sentinel between you and your targeted executive, scanning and filtering all incoming mail, in which case you might write a cover email designed to make her act first. And don’t forget that a document can have a long shelf life and be read a few years later by people who have no clue about its original context, and thus may misinterpret it. So think through the mystery readers and how you could cope with them.

　　技巧5：堵上挑刺者的嘴。當然，絕大多數讀者都不傻。他們知道內容重于格式，漂亮的格式(干凈的構成模塊、漂亮的布局、頁碼等)并不能保證內容的質量。但是，他們也會經常下意識地推斷，如果作者連格式都不關心，那么很可能也不會重視內容的質量。注重格式質量還可以讓所謂的“挑刺者”閉嘴。我們對這類人都很熟悉：在參加演示會時，他們會立即翻到有餅形圖的那一頁，檢查所有百分比加起來是否剛好100%。雖然這些吹毛求疵的人既不會致命，也不會增加價值，但是不要讓他們能輕易抓住你郵件報告的把柄，把讀者的注意力從真正的信息上引開。

　　Tip 5. Kill the mosquitos. Of course most of your readers are no fools.They know that content is more important than form, and that an attractive form (clear building blocks, an appealing lay-out, page numbering, etc.) is no guarantee of the quality of the content. Nevertheless they often reason unconsciously that, if the author didn’t even bother about formal quality, in all likelihood he didn’t bother about the quality of the content either. Form quality also neutralizes the so-called mosquitos. We are all familiar with them: the people who attend a presentation and immediately turn to the pages with a pie chart to check that the percentages add up to exactly one hundred. While these nitpickers are neither lethal nor value-adding, don’t make it easy for them to criticize your email presentation and distract your audience from your real message.

　　技巧6：讓回應你的郵件變得簡單。評價一塊布丁的好壞要靠品嘗，而檢驗寫作的質量則是要根據讀者的反應。切記，不回復往往是一種更方便的選擇。雖然你很難迫使讀者作出回應，但是至少你可以刺激一下他們。為此，從開頭的第一句話就要表明來意，說明你為什么寫這份郵件，以及你希望對方作出什么樣的回應—— 商務信函不應該像是推理小說。到結尾時，要為讀者提供默認選項，方便對方做出回應。例如，你可以在郵件中寫：“如果您在周一之前沒有回信，我就會當做您同意了我的建議。”(當然，如果郵件的接收者是你的頂頭上司，這一點就很難做到。)默認選項的威力巨大，因為人們往往不愿意花太多精力去做別的選擇。人們往往很難對默認選項說不，特別是當你指出，你提供的選項是正常的，或者甚至是被他人所推薦的。如果默認選項不太好想到，你可以明確向讀者表示你期待回復，并請他們告知他們的打算，以及相關的時間和方式。僅僅是詢問人們的計劃就可以起到推動作用。

　　Tip 6. Make it easy to respond to your text.If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the proof of your writing is in your reader’s response. But remember that not responding is often a more convenient alternative. While it is hard to force a response, at least you can prod. To start with, make it clear, almost from the very first sentence, why you are writing to the reader and what you expect from her – business texts should not be mystery novels. And when you come to the end, make it easy for the reader to respond by providing her with a default option. For example, you might include in your email: “Unless I hear from you by Monday, I will assume that you agree with my recommendation.” (This might be difficult if your reader is your boss.) Defaults are powerful because people often are not willing to spend much effort coming up with other options. The choice for the default option is especially hard to resist if you suggest that yours is the normal or even recommended choice. If there is no easy default option, you can explicitly tell your readers that you expect a response, and you can ask them to let you know what they intend to do, by when, and how. The mere fact of asking people what they intend to do acts as a nudge.

　　技巧7：反復修改。沒有偷懶的辦法。寫出一封非常出色的郵件需要時間和精力。想想托馬斯愛迪生那句最被人喜愛的格言：“大多數人錯過了機會，因為機會穿著工作服，而且看起來像工作。”只有付出時間提高郵件的質量，才有可能獲得回報，贏得機遇。只需要按下發送按鍵，你的讀者就有可能注意、查看、理解你傳遞的信息，并采取行動。

　　Tip 7. Work and work again on your text.There is no escape. Writing a high-quality text takes effort and consequently time. Consider Thomas Edison’s most endearing maxims: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” The opportunity relates to the return you might get from spending a bit more time on raising the quality of your text. Chances are your audience will then notice, read, understand, and act upon your message after only hitting the send button once.

　　總而言之，郵件作者應當像設計師那樣精心設計自己的郵件。好的商務郵件作者既不是藝術家也不是工程師;他是可以預見人們需求或想法的設計師，然后據此精雕細琢出一封恰當的郵件。利用這一方法，你可能就會得到自己想要的回應。

　　In summary, a writer should behave like a designer. A good business writer is neither an artist nor an engineer. He is a designer who envisions what people need or are thinking and then crafts an appropriate email. Follow that approach and, chances are, you’ll get the response you want.

　　赫爾曼萬特拉彭是布魯塞爾戰略咨詢公司Akordeon的董事總經理，以及《The Executive Action Writer》一書的作者。

　　Herman Vantrappen is the Managing Director of Akordeon, a strategic advisory firm based in Brussels, and author of The Executive Action Writer