-
One day last fall, my colleague Miguel
Morales received an email with a sign-off that
was so strange, it has stuck in his
mind for the last year. It came from Melissa
Geisler, who works in digital sports
programming and production at Yahoo. Below
Geisler’s title and above her cell
phone number was this mystifying quote: ―The Bird
is equal to or greater than the Word,‖
attributed to someone named, simply,
―scientist.‖
去年秋天某一天，我的同时
Miguel Morales
收到了一封结尾很奇怪的邮件，这个结尾
去年一直让他反感。这封邮
件是
Melissa Geisler
发的，她在雅虎从事数字
体育节目制
作的工作。在
Geisler
的职位下面，电话号码上面有这样一句奇怪的引言：“鸟可能大
于或等于那个词”引自
一个简单的名字自称为“科学家”的人。
With this
and other strange sign-offs in mind, Miguel
suggested I tackle the subject
of how
best to conclu
de an email. I polled
colleagues, friends and four people I’d
consider experts, including Cynthia
Lett, 55, a business etiquette consultant in
Silver
Spring, MD. Below is their
combined wisdom and some commentary of my own. I
offer four rules and a long list of
potential sign-offs.
对于这样子的和其它的一些结尾很奇怪的邮件，
Miguel
建议我着手处理一篇主题为如
何最好的结束一封邮件的文章。我
对同事，朋友和我认为是专家的四个人进行调查，
包括
Cynt
hia Lett
，他
55
岁，在马里
兰州银泉做商业礼仪顾问，然后总结出如下凝聚
他们智慧和我自己补充的结尾语。
But first, Geisler’s quote.
She says it came from an episode of the animated
cable TV
show
Family Guy,
about a song from the 1960s. ―That was me trying
to have a little
fun,‖ she says, adding
that she has since changed her signature to add
Yahoo’s new
logo, and abandoning the
quote, which she hoped recipients enjoyed while it
lasted.
Much as I r
espect
Geisler’s attempt at levity, I think it’s a
mistake to leave people
guessing about
what you want to say.
但是首先着手的是
Geisler
的引言。她说那句引言出自于动画片恶搞之家，是关于二十
世纪六十年代的一首歌曲。她说“我只是想找些乐子，”，她还说她已经删掉了那个
引言，将结尾改成了雅虎的新标识，她希望收件人能够喜欢。我认为
Geis
ler
的这种尝
试是有点轻率的，让别人去猜测你在邮件中真正
想要表达什么是不妥当的。
Here are my
four rules for signing off on emails:
下面是我总结出来的邮件结尾的四个规则：
’t include quotes.
1.
不要包含引言。
2. Avoid oversized corporate logos.
Sometimes we have no choice about this,
because our companies insist we include
these things, but if they are too big, they
draw the eye away from the message.
2.
避免过大的公司标识。有时候我们别无选择，因为公司坚持让我们
使用这些东西，
但是如果标识太大了，它会分散看信息的注意力。
3. Include your title and contact
info, but keep it short. In most business emails,
you’re doing the person a favor by
sharing your vital info
rmation. But
make it
minimal. Mine just says, ―Susan
Adams, Senior Editor, Forbes
212
-206-
5571.‖ A
short link to your website is fine but
avoid a laundry list of links promoting your
projects and publications.
3
.
包含你的职位和联系信息，但是保持简洁。对于大多数商业邮件，分享重要信息是
在帮助别人。但是保持简短。像我的就写，“
Susan Adam
s
，福布斯杂志高级编辑，
212-206-5571
。”包含你公司网站的短链接是可以接受的，但是避免出现一系列推广
你
的项目和出版物的链接。
4. Do include
some kind of sign-off. Mark Hurst, 40, author of
Bit Literacy:
Productivity in the Age
of Information and E-mail Overload, says the
function of a
sign-o
ff is to
signal the end of a message, so the recipient
knows it didn’t get
short
-
circuited. ―To me the
sign
-off is not so much style as
function in the service of clearly
communicating your message,‖ he
says.
4.
务必包含结尾。
Mark
Hurst
，
40
岁
，比特素养的作者说：在信息和邮件超载的时代，
结尾的功能是标志邮件的结束，因此收
件人知道没有短路。他说，“对于我来说，结
尾作为清晰地传达信息的工具没有太多的格
式。”
Etiquette consultant
Lett advocates a more formal approach. ―I don’t
believe emails
are conversations,‖ she
says. ―They’re letters.‖ I disagree. Emails are
their own form
of communication and
they’r
e evolving fast. Farhad Manjoo,
35, Wall Street Journal
technology
columnist and until recently, the voice behind a
Slate podcast, ―Manners
for the Digital
Age,‖ puts it well: ―An email is both a letter and
an instant message,‖
he observes.
礼仪顾问
Lett
提倡一个更加正式的方法。他说
“我不认为邮件是对话，他们是信件。”
我不同意。邮件是他
们彼此交流的形式，并且他们迅速发展。
Farhad
Man
joo
，
35
岁，
华尔街日报技术专栏作家，最近在
Slate
播客“数字时
代的礼仪”中说的好，“邮件既
是信件也是即时消息。”
All of that said, here is a list of
common and not-so-common email sign-offs, with
commentary and notes from the experts.
尽管如此，下面是一些带有专家评论和注释的常见的和不那么常见的邮件结尾。
Best
–
This is the most ubiquitous; it’s
totally safe. I recommend it highly and so do
the experts.
Best
–
是最普遍的；绝对安全的。我和专家都极力推荐这个。
My Best
–
A
little stilted. Etiquette consultant Lett likes
it.
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