Using English at Work
Lesson 2 - Checking Mail, Email, and Voicemail
intra-office - within one office or office building
* Kelly works in this building on the 29th floor, so if you want to send her something, you should put it with the intra-office mail.
inter-office - among many offices or office buildings
* Many companies have inter-office mail, because having someone take large bags of mail from one office building to another is cheaper and faster than using the regular mail service.
memo - memorandum; a short written document that describes something at work, usually with four lines at the top: the name of the author, the name of the person it's going to, the subject, and the date
* The president doesn't have time to read a long report, so please send her a one-page memo that describes the report's most important ideas.
junk mail - mail or email that doesn't have any useful or helpful information and that one throws away or deletes without reading; spam; unwanted mail or email
* If you receive a lot of junk mail, you can call this phone number and ask to have your name taken off of many companies' mailing lists.
to sort - to put things in order; to divide things into different groups or categories
* Please sort these books by author, so that everything written by Tolstoy is on the right and everything written by Dostoevsky is on the left.
to download - to copy a file from the Internet or a large network computer onto one's own computer
* Do you download music from the Internet?
spam filter - the part of an email program that keeps spam, or unwanted emails, from coming into an email inbox
* If your spam filter is too high, some of your friends' email might go to your spam folder where you won't see it.
trash - garbage; a place to put things that should be thrown away or deleted
* I accidentally deleted a very important email, but I was able to find it in the trash folder and save a copy of it.
to forward - to send an email that one has received to other people
* When your sister sends you an email with the photos from the party, please forward it to me.
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Using English at Work
Lesson 2 - Checking Mail, Email, and Voicemail
draft - something that one has begun to write but has not yet finished; an unfinished document; an unfinished piece of writing
* I just finished writing a draft of the email I want to send to Carol, but I'm going to wait a few hours and read it again after lunch before I send it.
voicemail - recorded voice messages from people who called your phone number when you weren't able to answer the phone
* I try to remember to delete my voicemail messages after listening to them, because if there are too many, people won't be able to leave me new messages.
PIN - Personal Identification Number; a set of secret numbers that are used as a password for getting information or money
* Don't write down your PIN. If other people see it, they can use it to get your private information.
to bypass - to skip something; to go around something
* You can bypass the road construction on Main Street by driving on Holly Street instead.
outgoing message - the recorded voice message that callers hear when they call a phone number but nobody answers
* Make sure that your outgoing message on your home answering machine is friendly but professional, in case your boss calls you at home.
to save - to keep something for use in the future; to not delete or throw away something
* Cassidy always saves tickets from the museums she goes to, so that she can remember where she went on her vacations.
to delete - to get rid of an electronic file or message; to remove something from one's computer
* I accidentally deleted my homework, so now I have to do it again.
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