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《Proper Email Greetings》

（文╱Robert Tolmasoff）The first words your readers see in an email, the greeting, need to be appropriate for the situation, and of course, grammatically correct. In this column we will take a look at the right greetings for email situations, and dispel some common myths about greetings and closings. 

Let’s divide greetings and closing into three different categories-formal, standard business, and informal. 

Formal Greeting:

Dear Mr. Michael Lee,
Dear Mr. Lee,

If you are writing to a person with a formal title, such as Professor or Doctor, you can include that in the greeting as well. Note that especially in North America it is not common to address businesspeople by titles such as “Chairman” or “President” in email. These terms are normally reserved for political leaders i.e. President Obama. 

Standard Business:

John,
Dear John,

Note: use of “Dear” in greetings, especially in North America, is far less common than in Asia. It is quite common when writing to someone, even your superior, to simply use the person’s first name. 

Informal:

Hi John,
Hello John,
Hi,
Hello,

These greetings indicate that you know the person you are writing to quite well and should only be used in routine situations. 

When writing to more than one person, use the following greetings

For Two People: 

Dear John and Mary,
John and Mary,

For more than two people: 

Dear Colleagues,
Dear Team,
Dear Department Heads,


Special Grammar Considerations:

1.    Use a comma ( , ) or a colon ( : ) after the greeting. The only difference is that the colon ( : ) is considered more formal.

2.    Capitalize every word in the greeting, with the exception of prepositions (of, at, in, etc), articles (a, an, the), and conjunctions (and). 


Finally, let’s avoid the following greetings, either because they are grammatically incorrect or simply because we now have better options available. 

Dears,
Dear Sirs, (What if there are ladies?)
Dear Both,
Dear All,
Dear Boss, 

專欄作者小檔案：
Robert Tolmasoff is a trainer, editor, and author based in Taipei. His clients include international companies as well as individuals looking to sharpen their communications skills. Robert’s last two books, 上班族完美英文e-mail輕鬆寫and1000 Essential Business English Terms, are available in books stores and from McGraw-Hill Taiwan. Have ideas for future columns or questions? Email Robert at rtlmsff@gmail.com