Pre-reading task

You are going to read an article about email. Before you read， think about the following questions： How many emails would you say you receive a day？ Can you remember what the last email you sent was about？ Do you read all your emails？ How do you decide which ones to read and which to delete？

A

It is difficult to remember how offices functioned before email became the main form of corporate communication. These days， the first thing most office workers do in the morning is check their email—a ritual which has become almost automatic， and one that is repeated throughout the day. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute in 2012 found that on average， 28 percent of the working day is spent checking email. And although it can be a highly efficient communication tool， some people long for the slower-paced days of letters and faxes， when you could work without interruptions from email notifications. Technology has improved many things about the way we work， but it has created new distractions in our workday. Although these may sometimes be welcome， what is the effect on efficiency， especially considering that more than 100 billion business emails are sent and received each day？

B

Some experts say that， to reduce the amount of time that we spend （and sometimes waste） on email， we should firstly unsubscribe from all the emails that we don’t actually read. On average， we receive 416 commercial messages per month， most of which either stay unread in the inbox or are immediately deleted. In addition to the sheer number of emails we receive， large attachments are also a problem. They take up valuable space on our systems. As a general rule， an email with attachments should be no bigger than 10MB. The McKinsey report also concluded that making use of social collaboration platforms， such as wikis or other web applications， could make corporate communications far more efficient and less time-consuming.

C

In recent years the boom in mobile digital technology means that there is now no escape from work email. Many people have access to company email 24 hours a day on smart phones and other devices. Although this makes flexible working easier， it also means that employees are constantly ‘on’， and perhaps feel obliged to deal with work issues outside of the office. In fact， in France legislation has recently been passed to ensure that workers in the consultancy and technology sector do not come under pressure to check email at home. The idea of the legislation is to protect the 35-hour working week and to ensure that workers disconnect from the office in their free time.

D

But email is definitely here to stay and， despite the fact that it is so widely used， it is surprising that many people still make basic errors when using email for business communication. Because email has become such a common form of communication both in our professional and personal lives， many people find the issue of formality problematic. In other words， people use much more informal language than they would if writing a letter. But when it comes to register， a business email is very similar to a business letter， and for this reason the language we use should depend on similar considerations. For example， we should think about how well we know the person we are writing to， what the context of the message is， and whether the person has invited us to refer to them using their first name. Email should not be confused with instant messaging， where the use of informal language， abbreviations and even emoticons is acceptable. Email is a lasting record of communication， so as a general rule you should never write anything that you would not want your boss to read. Employers also usually have a right to monitor any communication that happens on company equipment and on company time， and it is worth remembering this. The company policy on email monitoring should be clear， but as a general rule it is wise to assume that whatever you write from your work email address is not private. There have been several cases both in Europe and the US where people have lost their jobs over writing offensive or personal emails on the company’s system.

E

As peope4RCS2Lt5IRmzZVpzFaEOy0HKwmXtjRn3loEjShx0cw=le spend more and more time online， they also have less patience with overlong and complicated messages. The abbreviation ‘tl;dr’ is becoming common online. It stands for ‘too long， didn’t read’—emails should be concise， to the point， and clearly organised so that the main message is clear. If you need to include lots of information， add an attachment or a link to a webpage， because the danger is that if you write too much， the recipient may simply ignore the whole message.

F

So how can you increase your email efficiency？ Don’t file your messages into folders—this might seem like an efficient use of time， but in fact it is what the email program’s search function is for. Unsubscribe from all those promotional emails that you never read. Keep your emails short and to the point， and if it is quicker and easier， why not just have a chat face-to-face， or pick up the phone？

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1–13 below， which are based on the reading passage.

Questions 1–4

Complete the sentences below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer.

1. According to a recent report， what proportion of our time at work is spent responding to electronic communications？

2. What is widely believed to be an acceptable maximum size for an email？

3. What does the abbreviation ‘dr’ in the phrase ‘tl;dr’ stand for？

4. In which industries in France are workers’ rights protected with regards to digital communication？

Questions 5–10

For questions 5–10， decide which paragraph contains the information. Answer A， B， C， D， E or F. You can use each letter more than once.

Which paragraph…

5. offers expert advice about how to manage office communication better？

6. gives advice about formality when writing emails？

7. suggests anon-digital alternative to using email？

8. mentions dismissals as a result of inappropriate email use？

9. gives a potential disadvantage of technology on our leisure time？

10. talks about an apparently sensible way of organising email which is in fact a waste of time？

Questions 11–12

Below is a list of problems with the use of email in the workplace. Which TWO are mentioned by the writer in the article？

A. People accidentally forwarding a message instead of replying

B. People writing too informally when using email

C. Employees using time at work to send personal or inappropriate emails

D. Grammatical and spelling errors in business emails

E. People not checking email attachments for viruses

Question 13

Choose the answer A–D which best summarises the main ideas of the text.

A. Email is an efficient communication tool which makes our working lives easier.

B. Email means that companies can now monitor what their employees are doing much more effectively.

C. Email has had a huge impact on how we work， but isn’t always efficient.

D. Email is the most efficient way of communicating but needs to be more like letter-writing.

Answers

1. 28 per cent; 2. 10MB; 3. didn’t read; 4. technology and consultancy; 5. B; 6. D; 7. F; 8. D; 9. C; 10. F; 11. B/C; 12. C/B; 13. C