Email etiquette!
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…and not just for women:
The comments are interesting and insightful, for example:
"I'm using an exclamation point so you know I'm friendly and excited! But now I'm using a period so that you know I'm not crazy. Here's another sentence with a period as a buffer, proving my normalness. Thanks so much!"
The fuss about aggressive periods has died down over the past decade:
"The new semiotics of punctuation", 11/7/2012
"Aggressive periods and the popularity of linguistics", 11/26/2013
"Generational punctuation differences again", 8/1/2014
"Query: Punctuation in personal digital media", 2/23/2015
"Anticipatory confirmation", 10/7/2015
"Portentous periods", 2/12/2019
But ending phrases with nothing, or with commas, also has (or has acquired) a negative vibe.
There's something interesting to be said about the prosody of her "hi Dave" performances — comparing e.g.
and
…but that's a topic for another post.
Coby said,
March 11, 2025 @ 12:06 pm
Being an email user since 1970 or so, it took me quite a while to get used to writing "Hi [forename]" without an intervening comma.
Philip Taylor said,
March 11, 2025 @ 12:35 pm
Not having "Hi" in my idiolect, I typically start an e-mail with "Hallo <given name — ", not because I believe in complying with so-called "e-mail etiquette" but simply because "Hallo, <given name" would feel odd to me if not followed by a period.
Chris Button said,
March 14, 2025 @ 11:45 am
@ Coby
I still can't get used to people writing my name without something like "Hi" or "Dear" before it. Starting with just my name seems so blunt to me.
Meanwhile "Thanks, Chris" (with the comma) reads to me like I'm signing off rather being thanked! Granted a new line is usually used when signing off.
Nat j said,
March 14, 2025 @ 11:57 pm
What’s the significance of Tommy? I don’t get that part of the joke. Is he tech support? What’s the humor?