American Public Media's Future Tense
with Jon Gordon
Guy Kawasaki on how to write better electronic mail
Audio files: If you are having difficulty playing the files,
try saving them to your desktop and then opening them.
Part I    Part II

How to change from html to plain text format when using MS Outlook:
(左上角) 工具 → 選項 → 傳送 → 郵件傳送格式 (選擇純文字)
Look for Guy Kawasaki on Facebook!

Vocabulary (I):
effective
message
poorly crafted
to respond (to)
managing director
early stage
venture capital firm
Garage Technology Ventures
columnist
Forbes.com
to blog (blogged)
tips (for)
subject line
basically
window into your soul
to scan
inbox
to prove (to)
spam
longer erection
hot women
cheap drugs
automatically
to eliminate
second level
to interact
expectations
paranoid
to give a speech
speaker
actor
on stage
in real life
arrogant schmuck
guilt
spammy ones
to get through
borderline
to toss out
once in a while
to open s.t. up
legitimate
serious
sincere
to be real (= really) specific (with)
to communicate
connection
comment about
spammers
How often would they...
author		statistically
link
to pay attention (to)
not to mind getting
to be addicted to
all day long
process
nervous
to request an interview
PR (public relations) hound (= someone who loves, seeks public attention)
exposure in ink
perfect
How could I resist that?
ideal length
to start off (with)
Honolulu, Hawaii
on the wrong side of the track
taxi driver
elementary school
college
high school
paragraph
to cheer up (to feel encouraged)
evangelist (for)

Vocabulary (II):
 to get answered
power e-mailer
former
to craft
to keep s.t. to (amount) or less
to avoid Ving
file attachment
to add another step
to be bad at an extreme
to carry a virus
worm
trivialities
perfectly
benign
megabyte
PowerPoint
to be done out of ignorance
attached
document
two-paragraph
magical
to copy and paste into an e-mail
efficient
way to go (way to do s.t.)
plain text 純文字
to quote from		blog entry
...if you don't mind.
html (hypertext mark-up language)
pretty colors
fancy typefaces
"make me want to puke" (vomit, throw up)
It might be a little strong.
blog material
legitimate request
it doesn't need to be Ved...
to be dressed up with
multiple
frames
reasonable
to cut through the crap (to get straight to the point)
"to chill out" (to relax, take it easy, to not overreact)
dude (guy, man, friend, "Buster")
one of those cases where..
do as I say, not as I have done and probably will do (usually: do as I say, not as I do)
stinky little
message
to "suck" (to be really bad, lousy; this is very rude/vulgar)
whatever
to rip off an e-mail (to send an answer very quickly)
to take s.o. point by point
to refute s.o.'s argument
to slash and dash
to cut to shreds
guttural reaction (should be: gut reaction)
to swing (strike) at s.o.
To swing back at s.o.
the worst thing you can do
to escalate into a war
eventually
to find oneself Ving
to apologize
to find that (to discover)
to make the case that...
a good rule of thumb
to irritate
to delete
a missile
return missile
to fire back
The Art of the Start

Listening comprehension questions:
1. Briefly list the tips author Guy Kawasaki offers in these two interview files for writing more effective e-mail messages.
2. What kind of e-mail does Kawasaki choose to reply to right away, and why?
3. What kind of subject lines, according to interviewer Jon Gordon, are "borderline" ones that you really should check before deleting?
4. What things did Gordon do right when contacting Kawasaki for this interview?
5. What's the problem with long e-mail messages?
6. Give two reasons why sending attachments is not a good idea when it can be avoided.
7. What reasons does Kawasaki give for avoiding sending e-mail messages in html?
8. List the idioms in these interviews that are new to you. For each one (you can include some you already knew before, if you like), comment on how appropriate it would be for your own use, and in what context.
9. What's the best way, according to Kawasaki, to respond to e-mails that really upset you, and why is it better to react this way?
10. Give an example of a situation when you might say to someone , "Do as I say, don't do as I do".
11. To what extent do you follow Kawasaki's guidelines in your own e-mailing, and do you plan to change anything after listening to these interviews? What, and how? If not, why not?
12. If you could add one rule for improving e-mail to Kawasaki's list, what would it be? (My personal addition would be: Use a spellchecker before sending any e-mail message!)

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