Lesson: How to Save the World from Email

Conversation

Answer the following questions. You might be asked to write them down or answer them out loud.

1. How many emails do you receive every day?
2. How many emails do you send every day? What for?
3. Do you get angry when you receive emails from people/companies you didn't want to? Why?
4. How do you like to communicate with people: emails, messages, phone, etc?
5. Do you think it's boring to write emails to people? Why?
6. What do you do to 'protect' your mail box from junk emails?
7. Do you think emails will be substituted by any other means of communication? If so, which?
8. Are emails considered a real document in case of need?
9. How can a person write an email that is interesting to be read?
10. Are emails the best way to talk to long distance friends?

Vocabulary

Look at the vocabulary below. Take time to explore the links for their definitions in English and their translations to Portuguese. When you are done, make a sentence with each word. Ask your teacher if you should write them down or say them out loud.

DT   copy

DT   paste

DT   decide

DT   respond

DT   often

DT   destroy

DT   productivity

DT   better

DT   topic

DT   tag

DT   short

DT   send

DT   subject

DT   even

DT   sure

DT   weird

DT   slash

DT   rude

DT   punish

Video

Watch the following video but DON'T read the transcript yet.

After watching the video do this listening exercise.

Reading practice

Read the following transcript then do the associated reading comprehension exercise.

ExpandTranscript:

Emails are easier to write than they are to respond to. You can write an email in seconds, link to an article or video with a simple copy and a paste and send. Now that poor person you wrote to has to scan his cluttered inbox, open your email, read it, decide how to respond, then respond. Emails often have open-ended questions that are hard to answer, and people often get "Cc"ed on emails they don't care about. This is all spiraling out of control and destroying your productivity. So we ask, do you wanna be part of the problem or part of the solution? Here are things you can start doing today, to make your emails better for everyone. Choose good subject lines that clearly give the topic of your email and maybe even tag with an action category. Write short emails, keep it to five sentences or less if you can, and make sure the reason for the email is clear at the top. No weird fonts or colors please. Don't give open-ended questions, but very specific-action options. Slash unnecessary “Ccs” and when forwarding emails, tighten up threads by deleting unimportant things. Oh, and stop replying just to say thanks. It might feel rude at first, but it's one less email to worry about reading. So unless you enjoy punishing people, join the emailcharter.

Writing practice

Write a couple of paragraphs about how to write a good e-mail, don't forget to tell us some personal experience with this matter if you have some. Make sure to use words you learned from the text and try to make it as long as you can.

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