Managing Incoming Email

1  Email overload is a problem that affects nearly everyone with an email account. According to a recent report in Business Week, corporate email users receive an average of 20 to 30 incoming emails a day, and their email box may grow by as much as 80% in the next year. Much of that increase will come from unwanted promotional email, or “spam”, which has doubled in volume in the last six months and could triple in the next year.  The trend shows no signs of slowing down; increases in all incoming email will probably continue year after year, creating an ever more urgent problem for email users and corporations throughout the world.

2   Incoming email, if not managed properly, can become a big problem.    As users become distracted by some messages, they are more likely to lose track of other more important messages and fall further behind in their work.   An inbox full of dozens or hundreds of messages makes the users less and less efficient in other areas of work, spending more and more time “putting out fires” caused by the huge amount of incoming email. The more email piles up, the less useful it is to users or their companies.   The only way to enjoy email’s benefits is to manage it properly.

3     Corporate information technology (IT) departments should and must use software to defend against spam and other challenges. This may be controversial, but users can and should be responsible for managing their own email.

4     Many companies seem to have placed their hopes completely on software-based solutions. Companies like Brightmail, for example, sell server-based software to help weed out spam before it arrives in users’ inboxes. Also, Microsoft Outlook provides software for servers and users alike to help filter incoming messages.   While very useful, these tools will never fully solve the problem of email overload, for two reasons:

5     Automated filters will never catch all of the spam, since spammers will continue to work hard in order to come in.

6   Apart from spam, useful emails will continue to increase in volume, as email becomes an important method of communicating for business and personal purposes. These emails will demand ever more attention from users.    Even a perfect spam filter would still leave plenty of emails for the user to manage.

7     Of course, software does help and needs to be used.   But in the end, no solution will work unless it includes users, relying on them to take responsibility for their own email.   Solving email overload is basically about understanding the user’s information needs, and nothing can do that as well as the user.

Notes of Text B

1. 

Email overload ... with an email account.: Nearly every email user suffers from too many unwanted emails. 

that affects nearly everyone with an email account: an attributive clause introduced by “that”, modifying “problem”.

2. 

Much of that increase ... the next year. 

unwanted promotional email: unwanted email carrying advertisements 

which has doubled in volume in the last six months and could triple in the next year: a non-restrictive attributive clause introduced by “which”, adding information about “spam”.

volume: quantity, amount 数量，总量

a large volume of business, work, mail, etc. 大量的业务、工作、邮件等

3. 

The trend shows no signs of slowing down: It seems that spam will continue to increase.

4. 

Incoming email, if not managed properly, can become a big problem.

if not managed properly: It means “if it is not managed

properly”, serving as the parenthesis.

5. 

As users become ... in their work: Because users switch much of their attention to irrelevant messages, they will more likely neglect other important messages, thus further reducing their work efficiency.

6. 

An inbox ... amount of incoming email.

full of dozens or hundreds of messages: an attributive

modifying “an inbox”.

spending more and more time…: Here the -ing phrase serves as the accompanying adverbial and the logical subject of “spending” is “the users.”

putting out fires: Here it is a metaphor, meaning solving urgent problems.

caused by the huge amount of incoming email: an attributive past participle phrase modifying “fires”

7. 

The only way to enjoy email’s benefits is to manage it properly.: The only way that email users can enjoy the

convenience brought by email is to manage incoming email efficiently.

to manage it properly: The infinitive here serves as the

predicative.

8. 

Many companies ... software-based solutions.: It seems that many companies completely depend on anti-spam software.

seem to: give the impression or appearance of being or

doing sth.

9. 

Also, Microsoft Outlook ... filter incoming messages.: Also, Microsoft Outlook provides software for both servers and users to get useful and important messages while keeping spam out.

provide sth. for sb. (provide sb. with sth.): make sth. available for sb. to use by giving, lending or supplying it

10. 

While very useful ... problem of email overload:

Although these tools are very useful, they will never fully solve the problem of email overload.

11. 

Apart from spam, useful emails will continue to increase in volume: Besides/In addition to spam, the number of useful emails will continue to increase.

12. 

Even a perfect spam filter would still leave plenty of emails for the user to manage.

leave sth. for sb. to do: 留下某事物给某人处理

13. 

But in the end ... their own email.: But in the end, whether any solutions can work depends on users accepting the responsibility of dealing with their own email.

unless: Here it is used as a conjunction.

14. 

relying on them to do: Here the “-ing” form serves as the accompanying adverbial.

take responsibility for: agree to be in charge of sth. or sb. 对……负责

15. 

Solving email overload ... as well as the user.: In order to solve email overload, one must understand what the user needs most. For this reason, the best person to filter spam is the user himself/herself.

                                                        邮件管理

几乎每一个电子邮件的用户都受到超量邮件的困扰。《经济周刊》近来的一篇报道表明，公司的电子邮件用户平均每天收到二十到三十封新邮件，明年他们的邮件数也许会增长高达百分之八十。增长的这些邮件中大多数是推销商品的广告邮件，即垃圾邮件。这些垃圾邮件的数量在过去六个月里翻了一番，可能明年会翻两番。这个趋势没有减慢的迹象，新邮件数量很可能年复一年地继续增长，这个问题对于全球的电邮使用者和公司是愈加紧迫了。

新邮件如果管理不当就会带来大问题。用户的注意力一旦被一些邮件干扰就很可能会忽视一些更加重要的邮件，从而大大地影响工作效率。用户的邮箱里塞满了成百上千的新邮件，从而要花越来越多的时间去“灭火”，工作上其他事情的效率越来越低。邮件堆积得越多，对于用户及其公司而言就越没用处。要想充分利用电子邮件的优点，唯一途径就是恰当地加以管理。

公司信息技术部应该也必须使用软件来防范垃圾邮件和其他的攻击。这个问题上可能有争议，但是用户能够也应该对处理自己的邮件负起责任来。

很多公司似乎完全寄希望于利用软件来处理这个问题。比如说，像Brightmail这样的公司出售的基于服务器的软件，在垃圾邮件到达用户的邮箱之前将其清除掉。 Microsoft Outlook也提供软件帮助处理器和用户过滤新邮件。这些工具虽然非常有用，但是不能完全解决邮件超量的问题，原因有二：

自动化的过滤器永远不能清除掉每一个垃圾邮件，因为它们的制造者总在不断地努力想要侵入。

 不管是商业用途还是个人用途，电子邮件已经成为一种重要的交流手段。除了垃圾邮件之外，有用的邮件数量也在持续增长，势必需要用户给予更多的关注。即使是再完美的垃圾邮件过滤器也将会给使用者留下很多邮件让他们自己去处理。

当然，这种软件是有用的，也有必要使用。但是归根到底，任何解决问题的方式要真正起作用，就应该依靠邮件用户对自己的邮件担负责任。解决电子邮件超量的问题从根本上说是要了解用户需要哪些信息，而在这一点上谁也不会比用户本人做得好。