Email Salutations

[zebra363]

I have a pet peeve about this, but am pretty sure I'm in a tiny minority and thought I'd check other people's opinions.  Pretend you're emailing three people called Jane.

Poll Email Salutations

Comments

[kremmen]

I read "Hi, Zebra," as more conversational and a bit of a different animal to "Hi Zebra".

Speaking of peeves, the latter is just plain wrong. "Hi" is an interjection. The correct format for using such a critter is "Hi, Jane." So, when I clicked on the box that I did, what I really meant was "Hi, Jane.", because I don't use any of the grammatically incorrect versions.

I like variety, so I'll tend to use "G'day", "Greetings", etc, as substitutes for "Hi".

Most people take name alone to be very terse. It's the sort of thing a boss in a hurry does so I avoid it, unless I am writing to someone I know and am in a big hurry.

[zebra363]

I thought of putting comma and no-comma versions in the poll, but decided it would get long.

I only ever receive Hi, Zebra, salutations from people of decidedly superior literary ability!

This site I was just reading says:

The Gregg Reference Manual notes that a salutation such as Hi Marie technically requires a comma after the word Hi as well as Marie. However, it also points out that this is a very informal salutation, and that inserting a comma after the word Hi would be carrying grammatical correctness to an extreme.

I find no salutation at all terse, and names without commas following slightly terse, but plain names with commas perfectly conversational. Obviously a lot of people don't agree, so I might have to reconsider. I'd much rather be terse than overly familiar, though!

[kremmen]

I'd agree with this site that the Hi version is a sentence in its own right and gets a full stop at the end, but a second comma will do.

I don't really care if others leave the comma(s) out, but I don't think this is (in Australia, in email) "very" informal. Very informal is on the slippery slope to "does ne1 care" and "cya".

I like to be terse too, as much through laziness as anything else. Unfortunately, many people will take that as being unfriendly/uncooperative/etc.

[zebra363]

I didn't even realise we were discussing the punctuation after Jane, as well as after Hi! I see the point. However, it's not really used as a full sentence in this case, but rather as an opening. I'd find the full stop puts in an odd pause, and interpret it to mean that either bad news is following or the other person is only reluctantly participating in the conversation. Or I might just wonder why the person types out such a short sentence.

Reading these comments, I think the safest thing to do might be to stop using email!!

[kremmen]

Yes, that would be safest. The number of ways that people can (mis-)interpret intent from a text-based message is huge. This thread has only covered the salutation!