Crossing Ts and dotting Is

October 12, 2007

When exchanging emails with friends, do you feel the need to sign it with your name?

If we’re going back and forth in the same day, I don’t, but if we’re exchanging one email a day or less, I feel the need to sign it. Not signing it in my seems rude somehow, even if the person I’m writing to is a longtime friend. At the same time, it seems silly to sign your name half the time since the recipient knows who the email is from, and we’re talking about friends here, not a potential employer! Why is the formality needed?

A lot of friends will shorten their names in emails to an initial, and I like the way that conveys both familiarity and creates a close to the email. The only problem is I can’t seem to do it! When I sign an email as “J”, I feel weird, which is funny because for the last year and a half, my nickname at work has been “J” and I have answered to that nickname for nearly two years. Writing it seems pretentious to me though. Signing an email “Jumoke” seems like overkill and signing it informally as Jummy when few of my friends actually call me that, doesn’t work either.

Maybe I’ll start signing my emails as OOOF: short and accurate.

Filed under: Mundane by jummy

4 Responses to “Crossing Ts and dotting Is”

  1. Denise, on October 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm Said:

    Hehe, this is something I was thinking about today too! :) I sign it if I wrote the first email, after a couple replies though – if it really becomes a conversation, going back and forth – I end up just putting initials, "DC" – or if we're really going at it, LOL, just "D" – Like you, I do feel a bit rude if I don't sign off at all.

    It all depends on the nature of the email, and the relationship you have with recipient.

    What I hate is when people don't sign off – and just paste their whole email signature: name, address, phone, fax, email – the whole shebang. Once (or twice if you're pushing it) is enough. I get the picture after a whole email conversation!

    - – - –

    Your system makes sense to me, Denise. You're more polite though: if we're going back and forth in the same day, I don't feel the need to sign anything at. But if it was between you and I, who for reasons of timezone often have at least a day or two between our emails, I'd sign.

    I don't like the big signature block either! They should take two seconds to delete it.

  2. Denise, on October 11th, 2007 at 8:38 pm Said:

    * also depends on where the email is going… if it's just a quick question, quick answer – I will sign "Denise".

  3. Matt, on October 13th, 2007 at 9:57 am Said:

    some times i sign, sometimes i dont, im quirky like that

    haw haw

    - – - -

    By "quirky" do you by any chance mean lazy?

  4. Josh, on October 18th, 2007 at 3:39 am Said:

    I like OOOF. I am beginning to also feel a full name or first name sign off to every e-mail to be a bit of an overkill, especially if it involves going back and forth in responses daily. I think initials are the way to because of their neutrality: initials can be used to sign off formal and informal e-mails

« »