By coincidence, the passive-aggressive "Thanks in advance" is also the one I'm most likely to report spam on.
Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
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Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#32This is an excellent example of why inferring causation from an observed correlation requires great care. Note that the study did not randomly assign valedictions to emails and observe the causal impact on response rate. Rather, they observed a correlation between the sign-off chosen and the response rate. "Thanks" garners many responses because people use it in emails that make reasonable requests with a good chance…
"&c" is the archaic form of "etc", the ampersand being a ligature of "et" - Latin for "and". As far as I can tell the "&c." version was popularized by the 1944 novel "Anna and the King of Siam". So it literally means "I am, etc.", which I assume only expands to "I am your humble and obedient servant" in a humorous way. Might be taken the wrong way.
>"&c" is the archaic form of "etc", the ampersand being a ligature of "et" - Latin for "and".
"etc" is an abbreviation for and contraction of "et cetera", Latin for "and so on". "&c" is, I think, an artifact of a particular time in history when writing skills were spreading rapidly but the process of writing itself was cumbersome and time consuming, necessitating macro-type abbreviations like that. It's not particularly archaic.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#33I hate it when people use thanks for everything . What, you're thanking me for reading the email announcing the re-org? It reads as mindless and weird. I'm a "best" guy. It's never inappropriate. Whether I'm promoting you, firing you, reporting up on progress or problems, "best" always works. (I'm not saying it's the best closer in all situations, but if you hate thinking about closers, it's the best generic choice.…
"Best" what? These things may be somewhat culturally determined (including office/corporate culture). To me, "best" reads as mindless as any other. In fact, they all read as mindless to me, probably because in most cases they literally are mindless. You choose one and write it automatically in nearly every message. That's not to say they're useless . Politeness in social interactions is filled with formulaic, almost…
“Best” is the worst. Like it’s the best you’ve got. And there is no interest or room for negotiation, development or debate. “Thanks” likewise isn’t very good and sounds too impersonal and somewhat dismissive. I started using “thank you” for a more sincere, serious tone in business communication. I use it because “regards” irks me for some reason.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#34I was skeptical at first, but it could be explained by the implicit wording of the sign-off.
The highest rated sign-off "thanks in advance" implies that you're thanking them for their future action, which is most likely a response to a question in your email.
Whereas the lower rated sign-off's "kind regards" and "best regards" don't imply that you're expecting a response at all.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#35What’s the p-value on this bad boy? Also I wonder if they controlled for confounding factors. Ones I can think of are: “Thanks” more likely on emails containing requests, which inherently requires response if from colleague; personality could dictate which valediction you choose, which could also be reflected on how you wrote your email; whether “Best” and “Thanks” are used can be very cultural - eg everyone at Microsoft uses “Thanks” ONLY, and it would be very weird to see a “Best” and extremely rare to see a “Cheers”, those same communities may happen to have a larger response rate since some companies have better email culture, thus given their non-random sampling since they just used the responses from a small handful of online communities, that could bias results.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#36Me, when I started my career: Dear Bobby, Thank you for your email and response. I appreciate your prompt reply as always. Following the meeting with Jane at 2:00 P.M. PST, it is of my professional opinion that we… … Let me know when you get a chance for your thoughts and again appreciate your time. Thanks, Me — Me, today: Bob - Yes! Let’s rock and roll. Talk soon.
Me replying to my boss in chat when I first started working: “Yes I agree, thank you for the feedback”.
Me replying to my boss literally today: “lmao true”
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#37This is an excellent example of why inferring causation from an observed correlation requires great care. Note that the study did not randomly assign valedictions to emails and observe the causal impact on response rate. Rather, they observed a correlation between the sign-off chosen and the response rate. "Thanks" garners many responses because people use it in emails that make reasonable requests with a good chance…
>"I am, &c.," I've never heard that before, is it cultural/regional? (Compared to US)
It is archaic.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#38On first contact:
Regards, Full Name
everything thereafter:
- Name
Seeing comments about "seeming insincere" seems crazy to me. You're keeping up appearances no matter what your signature is, the impression you leave is going to come from the actual content of what you're saying anyway. I'd rather show I don't care about the formalities to encourage whoever I'm emailing to do the same.
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#39Cheers
Re: Closing email with “thanks” gets the most replies
#40If we're optimizing for response rate, how about "shove it up your ass"? That'll get a 100% response rate from your boss.