I am not a fan of the valediction “Respectfully.” In fact, I don’t much like it at all. Never have.
It seems to me that “respectfully,” more so than any other common complimentary close, calls attention to all of the other ways the writer could be. Every time I read correspondence that ends “Respectfully,” the subtext I get is “yeah, right now I am, but I’ll jettison such regard without hesitation should I find it sufficiently inconvenient.” It feels like an ordinarily rotten urchin making way too big a deal of the fact that he managed to get through a meal or a play date acceptably, when his behavior has only been what should be status quo.
I don’t get that with “Thanks,” “Regards,” or even “Best.” Is it me?
Of course, we’re generally signing and reading email these days, not actual letters. Mrs. Thagard went over “Sincerely,” “Yours truly,” and such when I was in the fourth grade, and those would seem stilted on electronic communication.
I tend toward “Thanks” or no valediction at all, with “Regards” and “Best” reserved for people I don’t know (or don’t know well). What do you use? Do you have any prejudices or notions, like mine about “Respectfully”?
Respectfully,
Bo
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Thanks is fine. Best makes my skin crawl. Don’t like Respectfully, and I particularly hate the abbreviation v/r.
Interesting. I’ve always thought of “Best” as rather innocuous. Glad to have that data point.
I use “Sincerely” as my default. It’s what my boss used when I first started working and it seemed to be respectful without fawning. It’s strong enough to use for stern emails and fine for standard ones. It does feel a little stilted in some instances. So if I’m asking a favor, I close with “Thanks” or “Thank you”. If we’re emailing rapid fire, I just put my name or leave off a signature entirely. Etc.
I loathe the “Respectfully” valediction. It seems forced and a bit fawning. Especially since the person I most often correspond with who uses it….has such a different natural communication style. It’s clear someone told her she needed a valediction and that she should use “Respectfully”. So she writes these brief, curt, sometimes incoherently vague emails and then closes with “Respectfully”. No. What would be respectful is putting enough information in the first email that it doesn’t take 3 more and a phone call for me to figure out what you are even asking. What would be respectful is using complete sentences and words like “please” and “thank you”.
“Forced and a bit fawning” is right in the wheelhouse of where I am with it. “‘Respectfully’ my ass,” is my knee-jerk reaction. And your additional reason for disliking it is just as strenuously held, it sounds like.