How Do You End Your Emails?

The struggle is real, my friends. Ever since I can remember I have been a grammar fanatic, correcting friends, family and coworkers. Yes, I am that annoying person that will call you out when you use I instead of me or vice versa. You all know from previous posts that I have an apostrophe abuse intolerance. Anyone that cannot distinguish between your and you’re should be in solitary confinement.

I proof read my emails many times over before I hit send and something that I have always struggled with is how to conclude an email. A few years ago I settled on “Best, Jacqui.” I realized that “Thank you” wasn’t always appropriate, “Warm Regards” was a little too cheesy, “Sincerely” was too formal, therefore, “Best” was the winner. On June 2nd, that all changed, I have been trying to fight the fact that I read this article.

“The problem with best is that it doesn’t signal anything at all. “Best is benign,” says Judith Kallos, an e-mail etiquette consultant. “It works when you apparently don’t know what else to use.” Others have called it charmless, pallid, impersonal, or abrupt. Caity Weaver, writing for the Hairpin, said it’s like “the black tank-top tucked in the rear of the display” at Target. “A few years ago, best seemed kind of uncaring—like turning your shoulder to the person without thinking,” says Liz Danzico, the creative director at NPR, who occasionally blogs about e-mail communication. “Now, it’s like a virus.” And so it’s mutated: “All my best,” “all best,” “very best,” and so on.”

First of all, an email etiquette consultant exists?! Second of all, I think they are being a bit harsh – after reading that, I feel as though I have personally offended people with my use of “Best” as a closure.

I got very anxious reading this article and had to take a break and come back. If I can’t use “Best” what will I use? Well here’s the answer and it’s a whole lot of NOTHING.

“So if not best, then what?

Nothing. Don’t sign off at all. With the rise of Slack and other office chatting software, e-mail has begun functioning more like instant messaging anyway. “Texting has made e-mail even more informal than it is,” Pachter says. In conversations with people we know, complimentary closings have started to disappear. Tacking a best onto the end of an e-mail can read as archaic, like a mom-style voice mail. Signoffs interrupt the flow of a conversation, anyway, and that’s what e-mail is. “When you put the closing, it feels disingenuous or self-conscious each time,” Danzico argues. “It’s not reflective of the normal way we have conversation.” She ends all her e-mails, including professional ones, with the period on the last sentence—no signoff, no name, just a blank white screen.”

I have tried for the past month but I just can’t do – I hit undo send and have to put a closure in there and it’s usually, “Best.” I feel ashamed like an alcoholic hiding bottles of liquor in random places taking nips here and there. I just can’t get used to hitting send without signing off. Yes, I have a signature but that just doesn’t seem personal enough.

How do you end your emails? I am definitely taking suggestions!

BEST,

JACQUI