“REGARDS”. “BEST WISHES”. “Warmly”. “Cheers”. “Take care”. The words at the end of a professional email may seem banal. Still, the sign-off matters. Even the ubiquitous “Sent from my iPhone” can act as a justification for brevity and typos or as a virtue-signal that the sender has taken the time to reply although clearly not at their desk. It is therefore worth considering how your missive’s ending will be perceived on the other end, not least because it is likely to be archived away in perpetuity.

【1】missive 信函[官方長信]

【2】archive 存檔

“REGARDS”. “BEST WISHES”. “Warmly”. “Cheers”. “Take care”.一封專業(yè)郵件的結(jié)尾處的文字可能看起來陳詞濫調(diào)。不過，信的結(jié)尾還是很重要的。即使是隨處可見的“來自我的iPhone”，也可以作為簡潔和錯別字的理由，或者作為一個美德的信號，表明發(fā)件人已經(jīng)花時間回復(fù)了，盡管很明顯不是在他們的辦公桌上回復(fù)的。因此，值得考慮的是，你的信件的結(jié)尾會被另一方如何看待，尤其是因為它很可能會被永久存檔。

The appropriate sign-off depends on your position in the corporate pecking order, your relation to the recipient and the nature of exchange. Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, has a few general tips.

【1】pecking order 權(quán)勢等級

合適的結(jié)尾取決于你在公司的地位、你與收件人的關(guān)系以及(郵件)交流的本質(zhì)。您的專欄作家巴托比嘉賓有一些一般性的建議。

First, go easy on informality. Use proper grammar and spelling. It is hard to imagine that you could do a lot with the seconds saved with a “see ya” or “thx” instead of writing the words out in full. Bartleby herself often hides in the intersection of the busyness of life and artificial intelligence. “Got it!” Gmail’s predictive algorithm suggests, and your columnist often clicks on the box. This is maybe lazy but also efficient. It removes the need for a greeting (part of whose job is done instead by the affectionate exclamation mark). Resort to this tactic if truly in a hurry or too melancholic to engage with the world.

【1】affectionate 有愛心的；親昵的；充滿深情的

【2】exclamation mark 感嘆號

【3】melancholic 抑郁的

【4】to engage with sth/sb 對付某事/某人；(deal with) 處理?problem?；應(yīng)付?situation, critics?

首先，不要太隨意。使用正確的語法和拼寫。很難想象，用“see ya”或“thx”而不是使用完整拼寫，你可以節(jié)省多少秒，且做很多事情。巴托比本人經(jīng)常躲在忙碌的生活和人工智能的交叉點?！癎ot it!” Gmail的預(yù)測算法給出建議，您的專欄作家也經(jīng)常點擊(這個)框。這可能是懶惰的，但也是有效的。它省去了打招呼的必要(其中一部分工作是用充滿深情的感嘆號來完成的)。如果真的太匆忙或太憂郁而無法應(yīng)付世界，就使用這一策略吧。

Spelling things out also helps avoid confusion. A senior editor at The Economist signs as “X”—because his first name starts with that letter, not because he is overly fond of osculation (he uses “XX” for his close friends; his surname does not start with X). Especially when emailing someone for the first time, it is essential not only to include your full name and last name but to avoid folksy terms such as “Ciao” and “Be well”.

【1】osculate 吻；接吻；(使)(兩曲線或兩面間)互成密切

完整拼寫也有助于避免混淆?！督?jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》的一位高級編輯署名為“X”，因為他的名字是以這個字母開頭的，而不是因為他過于喜歡親密接觸（他用“XX”來稱呼他的密友；他的姓氏不以X開頭）。尤其是第一次給別人發(fā)郵件的時候，不僅要寫上你的全名和姓，而且要避免使用諸如“Ciao”和“Be well”這樣的民間用語。

Bartleby’s heart sinks every time she sees a sign-off trying to exude a chilled vibe. They ooze neediness. Affectionate terms such as “toodles” or “l(fā)ots of love” do not enhance proximity to the recipient unless the closeness is already there. “Smiles” is unspeakable. “High five from down low”, which one publicist used in an email exchange, is worse.

【1】chilled 很輕松的

【2】vibe 氛圍；感覺

【3】ooze 散發(fā)

【4】unspeakable 可怕的

【5】toodle-oo/toddles? [釋義] a way of saying goodbye

每次看到郵件的結(jié)尾想要流露出一種很輕松的氣氛，巴托比的心都往下沉。他們有需求。像“toodles”或“l(fā)ots of love”這樣充滿感情的詞匯，除非已經(jīng)很親密，否則不會增加與收件人的親近程度?！癝miles”是可怕的。一位公關(guān)人員在郵件交流中使用的“High five from down low”更糟糕。

Avoid being prescriptive. “Have a nice day”, “Happy Monday” or “Take it easy” emphatically do not promote relaxation. “Stay safe”, popular amid lockdowns, evokes sex-education manuals. “Eagerly waiting for a response” will invariably delay the response’s dispatch. “Check out my latest book”, especially with Amazon links, is uncouth. “Follow me on Twitter” lacks graciousness.

【1】prescriptive [釋義] saying exactly what must happen, especially by giving an instruction or making a rule

【1】emphatically 毫無疑問地

【2】invariably 一貫地

【3】graciousness 有禮貌

避免“說教”。 “Have a nice day”, “Happy Monday” 或者 “Take it easy” 毫無疑問都不會促進(jìn)放松?！癝tay safe”在封鎖期間很流行，這讓人想起性教育手冊?！癊agerly waiting for a response” 總是會延遲回應(yīng)的發(fā)送?！癈heck out my latest book”，尤其是有亞馬遜鏈接的時候，是很不雅的?！癋ollow me on Twitter” 缺乏禮貌。

Next, be consistent. “Yours truly” was a common way to conclude a business letter in the 19th century. But in that era correspondence was layered with nuance. “Yours faithfully” could be preceded only by “Dear Sir” (or, on rare occasions in commerce, “Dear Madam”). If the recipient was named (“Dear Mr So and So”) then the book-end was “Yours sincerely”. Today writers fasten the formal to the informal. If your subject line is “Now in paperback” don’t overcompensate by personalising your sign-off. If you send out a press release on emissions cuts, do not end your note with “Hugs”.

【1】nuance 細(xì)微差別

【2】overcompensate 過度補償；矯枉過正 [釋義] to try too hard to correct a problem, therefore creating a new problem

接下來，保持一致。在19世紀(jì)，“Yours truly”是一種常見的商業(yè)信函結(jié)尾方式。但在那個時代，通信是有細(xì)微差別的。“Yours faithfully”前面只能是“Dear Sir”(或者，在商業(yè)中極少數(shù)情況下，偶爾也會加上“Dear Madam”)。如果收信人的名字是(“Dear Mr So and So”) ，那么書尾就是“Yours sincerely”。今天的作家把正式用語和非正式用語聯(lián)系起來。如果你的主題是“Now in paperback” ，不要過分強調(diào)你的結(jié)尾。如果你要發(fā)布一份關(guān)于減排的新聞稿，不要以“Hugs”結(jié)尾。

Do not cry out for attention. Latin began to die out in the sixth century and was later abandoned for the vernacular. So resist including dictums in a dead language (“nil posse creari de nilo” as a default salutation is a bit outré). One of Bartleby’s venture-capitalist correspondents signs off with Bertrand Russell’s observation that “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt”—which sounds, well, cocksure.

【1】vernacular 方言

【2】dictum 宣言

【3】Nil posse creari de nilo 無中不可能生有(事出必有因)

【4】outré 非同尋常的；古怪的；（尤指）荒誕出格的

【5】cocksure 自以為是的

不要迫切求得別人的關(guān)注。拉丁語在六世紀(jì)開始消亡，后來被方言所取代。所以，不要把格言寫入一個死氣沉沉的語言中(“nil posse creari de nilo”作為默認(rèn)問候語有點古怪)。巴托比的一位風(fēng)投記者以羅素的評論作為結(jié)尾處:“這個世界的問題在于，愚蠢的人過于自信，而聰明的人充滿懷疑”，這聽起來，嗯，過于自信。

Lengthy automatic salutations can be tiresome (“I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus” is simply too much information). If you want to cut a thread short, consider “Thank you in advance”. Yes, it may strike some as presumptuous. But it has the virtue of saving you from a follow-up email.

【1】presumptuous 放肆的

【背景】Inbox When Ready

擴展：Protect your focus.Spend less time on your email. This browser extension will help you check your inbox with reasonable frequency, batch process your email on a regular schedule and minimise the total time you spend in your inbox.

冗長的自動問候可能會令人厭煩(“I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus“，這信息太多了)。如果你想減少聯(lián)絡(luò)次數(shù)，可以考慮“Thank you in advance”。是的，這可能會讓一些人覺得有些放肆。但它的優(yōu)點是讓你不用再發(fā)后續(xù)郵件了。

Some elements of the corporate sign-off are beyond your control. It may include the company’s logo or disclaimers mandated by company policy (“Please consider the environment before printing this email”). But the function of sign-offs is to sign off. Technology may have disrupted the epistolary form, but as with all last words, much still depends on the echo they leave in your mind.

【1】disclaimer 免責(zé)聲明

公司結(jié)束語中的一些元素是你無法控制的。它可能包括公司的logo或公司政策強制的免責(zé)聲明(“Please consider the environment before printing this email”)。但結(jié)尾的作用就是為了“結(jié)尾”?？萍伎赡芤呀?jīng)打亂了書信的形式，但就像所有的遺言一樣，很大程度上仍取決于它們在你腦海中留下的回聲。

Thank you for your consideration. Talk soon.

謝謝您的考慮。再聯(lián)系。

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