A common problem when you get email is that you get an email attachment that you can't read. Sometimes this is because the person who created it wasn't careful and didn't save it correctly, or is using a piece of software that you don't have. But most of the attachments that you get will be word documents.
Most word documents are easy to open.
Double click on the attachment. That will get you an icon to double click. Now, you may be familiar with files that have names like frisbee.wpd. That .wpd is an extension. That extension is a map that gives instructions to the computer to tell it how to open a file.