NYT Article, "Yours Truly, the E-variations"

In this article author Lola Ogunnaike compiles the educated opinion of professionals from a wide range of professions on matters of e-mail etiquette, more specifically sign-off etiquette. The overall advice is keep it professional, but make sure its warm and appropriate to your relationship with the receiver. To keep it on the safe side, Judith Kallos says you can "let the other side set the level of familiarity,"(3) something she calls 'mirroring.' I think Mary Mitchell, author of a well-known etiquette book, sums up the reason this article needed to be written; "While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write, on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully."(3) I think this article should be a memo in every office. Not only does it inform readers of the proper ways to sign-off an email, but it does so by outlining case examples, which for this purpose is a perfect means. This article is directly linked to the theme of our course, Internet writing, it is merely a narrower perspective (by focusing on email sign-offs) of what we are learning to do effectively.