Saying Thank You in an Email
In our recent poll on pet peeves regarding emails, a number
of respondents expressed irritation about receiving messages
that contained only the words thank you.
They reasoned that opening these short messages
wasted their time. They were merely doing their job and didn’t
need to be thanked. I understand their rationale; however,
sending a thank you indicates the receipt of information
and a close of the requested action.
My suggestion – to keep the process short but to acknowledge
the receipt of information and your appreciation – is
to put the thank
you on the subject line along with the indicator END.
END on the subject line means there is no need to open the
message
as there is nothing in the body text.
Example
(original
subject line)
Figures for Annual Report
(Your response subject line)
Figures for Annual Report — Thank
you — END
Receivers can read the entire message in their inbox and
immediately file it or blow it away. By the way, some organizations
use EOM (end of message) or NT (no text) instead of END.
It doesn’t matter – whatever works for you.
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