urgent help required: how to sign off semi-official, semi-friendly email

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I am writing an email to a university contact who I am quite friendly with but this is an official email. I have considered signing off with the following and rejected them:

yours sincerely/faithfully (too formal)
see you soon (probably won't, don't want to imply this)
best wishes/regards (too pompous and recently invented)
bye (too stupid)
yours (sounds romantic)

help!

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I am sending this email soon so please help me!!

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i think a simple "sincerely" will do.

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

What about just 'full stop. Maryann.' Is that too cold? Too inane? Too much of an obvious cop out?

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

OK I'm going to try out sincerely.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

It's just not ME!

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

wait no, no!

peace out

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Audi 5000

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My email is trailing off into all these stupid sentences about art exhibitions and cold weather in an obvious attempt to come up with some formulation for ending it.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"all the best"

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

what is the letter for?

this shouldn't be hard.

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Cordially,"

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

earlier a friend of mine concluded her e-mail to me by saying "so long, magic fingers"

(?)

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, basically, it's for this poet who I really respect, but who also works in an official capacity at university. If it was just for some non-reading official, things would be fine, but I feel like he WILL be conscious of each word, you know, I want to IMPRESS him, ... I know this is ridiculous, by the way.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"fin"

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, it's not really that I want to impress him, I just don't want him to think 'what a 21st century emailing moron'

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, what about 'I remain, your most humble and inept etc, Maryann'

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

By the way all these suggestions are great. I especially like 'fin'. That's so pretentious.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Guess what, I put 'yours'!!

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, oh, oh!

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this Love each other as I have loved you.
--John 15:10-12

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant it like "fin!", as in a cry of alarm, like you were emailing from a laptop in an inflatable raft just off the Florida coast

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i think "sincerely" is best because it doesn't seem like you labored over it. it's not loaded at all. you won't stay up all night worrying about the impression it's made.

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that said 'My fuhrer's command'!!

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

i usually put "regards" for emails like that. if they're less formal i put "cheers"

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

you won't stay up all night worrying about the impression it's made.

... only one hour. I CAN usually limit it to an hour, you know.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

the best way is

Stay fresh,
J

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i always like to have a bit of a kack at people who sign theirs "best". wank alert!

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

hahaha, gem do you know hstencil?

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this whole thing boils down to a basic problem of not being able to align myself with any social group. Am I a cheerful drinker? No. To use 'cheers' is ruled out then. Am I a rastafarian? No, so I can't say 'one love' or 'peace out'. Am I Christian? No, so I can't say 'God bless'. I just need more friends. To define my 'signing out style'.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

There's always the indecipherable, surreal, bid - just sign something like:

"Yours in the revolution and the power of Santiago Cruz y Huca to stir the guerillistas as need be,

ONWARD!

J."

Followed immediately by a retraction email to the effect of "You will forget that."

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Seriously, I always find that "warmly," or "fondly," is the best gambit, and neither's overly used.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

'Fondly' is nice.

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:41 (twenty-one years ago)

When it's someone I'm pretty familiar with, my business letters and e-mails end this way.

Sincerely,

Jim

(but I'd suggest using maryann in your case)

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

....and thank you in advance for your help.

urgent help required: how to sign off semi-official, semi-friendly email
Maryann

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

what about a simple "cheers,"? it works for me. it's friendly w/o being cloying, cheerful without being ebullient, and implies no further communication if it isn't necessitated.

cheers,
maryann

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

you people must be english.

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

veering dangerously close to jon williams territory there...

― Bumfluff, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

i just can't imagine a 'merican signing off with "cheers"

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

;- )

― Bumfluff, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

derrick is a north american (i think).

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i always do

best,

― maura (maura), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I usually use "cheers" or even just "thanks" for semiformal stuff.

thanks,
Trayce

Seems to work ... in an email context anyway.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

me too, or even "thanks in advance" so they know there won't be a series of back and forth pointless "thanks" "no thank YOU" "you're welcome" exchanges

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

'21st century emailing moron' is tops! but not in this case. self-deprecation is for losers. so not in this case.

― youn, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

regards.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:27 (twenty-one years ago)

keep on trucking.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:28 (twenty-one years ago)

love you,

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i use thanks, or if i'm asking a favor i usually say something like 'thanks in advance for your help, colette'

thanks is simple, not too formal, and just implies that you're nice...

― colette (a2lette), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Talk soon"

You can't fuck with the "Talk soon"

Talk soon

― LC, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

hammertime.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 09:30 (twenty-one years ago)

there's a girl at my work who i have to ask lots of work-related questions of that signs hers "cheerio" when she's getting cranky with my questions.

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 09:32 (twenty-one years ago)

'Thanks in advance' sounds like you've got an overdraft at the Bank of Thanks - I always think the person who writes this to me is pushing their luck. If I want compliance from the snotty woman at the bank I write 'thank you for your cooperation'.

Thank you is better than thanks which is better than 'ta'. You will experience 'ta' with nasally and patronising but deeply common retail managers and you will get it from dead white males who don't believe in the full 'thank you' for underlings and think they're being all down to earth.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

regards
kind regards

dependent on how much shit you are landing on their desk.

― ___ (___), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"thanks in advance" is passive-aggressive, and just work beautifully if you're asking for something you're already owed, from a bank or similar. like:

mr. harryhausen:

i was told my check should have arrived by friday the 12th. it is monday the 21st, and i have not yet received it. can your office investigate the situation and let me know what you find?

thank you in advance for your help,

amateur!st

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

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