39 more ways to close your emails

My post from last week, “39 ways to close your emails,” discussed how to put a little personality into email signoffs. Why use “sincerely” or “thanks” when you can use “stay tuned” or “You don’t need to see my credentials”? PR Daily readers added a few of their own favorite closing lines: 1. Allons-y 2. Be well 3. Caring is what we do 4. Carpe diem 5. Enthusiastically 6. Excellent, Smithers 7. Forward 8. Get to the choppa 9. Hasta la vista, baby! 10. Have a magical day 11. I am 12. In gratitude 13. Love is in the details 14. May the force be with...

39 ways to close your emails

Tired of closing your emails with “Thanks” or “Sincerely”? Want to keep your email sign-offs informal, yet polite? Or maybe you want to inject a little personality into your emails. I once received an email from an outside contractor that ended with, “I stand ever ready to assist you.” Nice sentiment, but odd given our working relationship. The email sign-off—more formally called a valediction—can be tricky. It should be consistent the overall tone of your email and reflect your relationship with the recipient. Choose your closing words carefully. Here are...

What would Jane Austen do? A guide to so...

Jane Austen novels are full of characters who make astounding social errors. From Mr. Collins over-ingratiating himself with Lady Catherine de Bourgh in “Pride and Prejudice,” to Emma’s very cruel and very public snubbing of Ms. Bates in “Emma,” Austen’s novels illustrate perfectly how not to behave. And though they were written 200 years ago, the social lessons translate to 2014. Take social media. Much has been written about bad manners and blunders on social media, but here are a few I’ve experienced recently, discussed in the context of Austen’s most...

16 Shakespearean insults

When it comes to clever comebacks, insults, and affronts, few can match the wit and genius of William Shakespeare. Though his plays are filled with stabbings, poisonings, and sword fights, some of the most wounding moments include the verbal attacks of Shakespeare’s characters. Though it is unlikely that any of us could work these into our writing for PR purposes, reading them is certainly a diversion, and perhaps they could inspire a clever, non-vicious turn of phrase in a blog post or a press release. I’ve been daydreaming about using these on certain co-workers....

Keeping your readers focused

“Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle. That’s the intellectual environment of the Internet.” In his book, “The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” Nicholas Carr describes what we have long suspected — that our use of the Internet is creating neurological changes in the brain, affecting our ability to remember facts, or pay attention long enough to fully understand what we read. Now, what was that again? Though many disagree with Carr, the research he cites in his book has important implications for content creation. Among the...

Treading on thin ice, schools chief deli...

During a recent spell of bad weather, I was home watching a communication crisis unfurl, a crisis that hit close to home. An ice storm had moved into the Austin area in the early morning hours of Jan. 28. Like many parents in the area, I woke up expecting an announcement that school would have a delayed opening or be closed completely. By 6:30 a.m., there was no announcement, so we proceeded with our morning routine. I dropped my kids off at school and then started the long commute to the office. Fifteen minutes later, just as I was hitting traffic, I received a text...

Alternatives to dehumanizing business ja...

It’s January, and for many of us it’s time to complete our annual self-assessments and undergo another round of performance reviews. No matter how good a writer you are or how adept you are at crafting messages, it’s never easy to complete a self-assessment. Choose the wrong words, and you might not get a raise. If only executives thought so carefully about words—particularly the words they use to describe the people who work for them. We’ve all been on the receiving end of a message that made us feel less like a human being and more like a replaceable part in...

And the award for best word goes to . . ...

January marks the culmination of “word awards season”—when dictionary publishers announce their selections for their words of the year. For 2013, Oxford University Press named selfie; Merriam-Webster named science; and Dictionary.com named privacy. There is another organization that names a word of the year—an organization you may have never heard of. This 125-year-old organization unites word nerds of all types and was naming a word of the year before it was cool—the American Dialect Society. For 2013, the society chose because as its word of the year. Not the...