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写在前面：在blog：http://englishblog.org/2006/12/01/yours-truly/链到这个Times的文章，很喜欢这种专业的8g，并且觉得对工作还是有一定参考价值，于是产生翻译的念头。翻了一个下午，惭愧。然后把自己的落款改成Warmly，看看过几天大家有什么反应。感谢8T群里破木片的指点和同事Arthur的建议。
"Yours Truly,"的网络变体
CHAD TROUTWINE，一位在加州Malibu市的企业家，今年早些时候在为他在中西部一幢建筑谈判一个商业合同。虽然谈话开始的很好，可是很快又变得困难重重。有证据说明事情真的转移了么？那就是他预期租房者的E-mail的落款的改变。
“随着谈判开始走向失败，落款开始人为的变得简短和冷酷，”Troutwine先生回忆道，“开始是像，‘I look forward to speaking with you soon’和‘Warmest regards,’到最后的‘Best.’买卖最终完成了，但Troutwine先生依然感到好像他被斥责了。
E-mail落款里究竟包含着什么？显然有很多。最终的那些在你名字上的几个词是关系和等级建立的地方，是消息正文写的那些东西被阐明或隐藏的地方。在电子通信之前的年代，每个三年级学生都学过不管公务还是私人的信件格式：（英文的';'表示解释，所以我改成‘：’）从“Sincerely”到“Yours truly”到“Love”的落款，不用费多大劲就会在脑海中出现。
但是e-mail属于非正式媒介，它的谈话还不满十年。依然包括落款，尽管常常显得笨拙。公务信件常见出现全文小写，并且飞速的信件在几次往来后由正式变得亲近？
尽管引领邮件的招呼可能也不易处理——全世界都有不同，看起来，在“Hi”，“Hello”和“Dear”之间——落款却是很多写信者尝试表达自我的地方，哪怕在公务信件中表达个性不总是受欢迎。
换句话说，这是一个地雷。Etiquette 和交流专家同意说再见变得越来越难的观点。
“这么多人不是明白的交流者，”致力于在线礼仪的网站NetManners.com的创始人，《Because Netiquette Matters（网络礼仪引起的麻烦）》的作者，Judith Kallos说道。为了讲明白一封e-mail邮件要表达什么，和要暗示什么，以及要阐述什么，“读者不得不从头到尾的看每一部分以寻找线索”她说。
Troutwine先生不是唯一一个认为写“Best,”然后名字的e-mail发送者在表达接近斥责的含义的人，他说他选择自己商业信件落款，根据热情的降序排列，从“Warmest regards”到“All the best”到一个简略的“Sincerely”。
当Kim Bondy。前CNN执行官，在晚餐约会后给一个求婚者写e-mail，她用了她偏爱的收尾之一：“Chat soon.”这是她表达“约会进行的很好，再来一次”的方式，她说。
恐怕她是唯一这么认为的。回信由可怕的“Best.”收尾。它让她的感觉就好像她误解的那个夜晚。“我感觉，‘噢，那么正式。我想他不喜欢我，’”她笑着说道。“一个冷颤随着这个‘Best.’而来。”并且仍未消散。
“Best”的确有它的粉丝，特别在工作场所，对于完全没有落款只是发件人冷酷地加上他或者她的名字的邮件来说，它在提升感情上可以是通用的。
“我在我所有的职业e-mail中都用‘Best’，”Kelly Brady说，纽约的一个自信的政论家说，“它友善，快捷且扼要。”
因为人们能在落款中读出如此多信息，Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners广告公司的主创人员Richard Kirshenbaum说，他仔细思考过他偏好的职业邮件的结尾，“Warmly, RK.”他不要太感性的东西，比如“Love,”或者太正式，比如“Sincerely.” “‘Warmly’在两者之间，感觉令人舒服，”他说，“我要传达一种温暖和热情，同时还要适当。”
这不过只是一封职业的e-mail信件应该做到的，许多执行官说。令人惊讶的是，“xoxo”的落款，表达拥抱和亲吻，成为普遍甚至出现在断然非爱情的关系中。Bondy女士，当在CNN时每天曾收到300－500封邮件，一点不喜欢“xoxo”式的告别，特别当它来自正在为其故事投稿的陌生人。“他们试图显得热情和熟悉，可是不应该，”她说，“这是不合适的，并且这很可能成为我不会回复的e-mail。”
Robert Verdi，一位时尚设计师兼整人秀“Surprise by Design”主持人，自称是“xoxo冒犯者”。“从不在第一或第二封邮件，”他解释道。但在几次友好的电话交谈或e-mail交换后，他对亲爱的和随意的落款感到很舒服，虽然他总是等待对方迈出第一步。“对方给你提示，”他说，“他们发‘你是最好的！Love, Alison，’于是你发一个‘Hugs and kisses’然后忽然之间你们跨越了尴尬，成为最好的朋友。”
Kallos女士认为Verdi先生的方法是正确的。“公务上你要维持最高级的正式直到对方暗示别的方式，”她说，“依样画葫芦不是坏事。你让对方设定亲密的程度。”
结尾在保持邮件情绪上也很重要，否则可能产生某种感知上的不和谐，《The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette（礼仪的完全傻瓜指南）》的作者Mary Mitchell说，“如果你在向一个公司抱怨一样产品，而你落款是‘Warmly,’你就会让人产生误解，”她说。
许多e-mail用户不愿费事去落款，Letitia Baldrige，礼节专家，觉得那令人不愉快。“它太生硬了，”她说，“并且非常不友好。我们生活中需要优雅，我不是在说天堂般的优雅。我在说人类的优雅。我们应该尝试热情且友好。”
但重要的是，不要在落款开太多玩笑，Baldrige女士警告道。在向一位20出头的男性撤回一封邮件之前，那封邮件结尾说“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.（别让床上的虫子咬了。）”，她说，“你要留下一个有吸引力的热情印象，床上的虫子让人恶心。”
不用说，他们证明了Mitchell女士提出的关于e-mail信件的一点。“当一方面e-mail鼓励人们写，”她说，“另一方面，他阻碍人们认真地写。”
——直接在原文中更正了作者声明的人名拼写错误
‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations
Published: November 26, 2006
CHAD TROUTWINE, an entrepreneur in Malibu, Calif., was negotiating a commercial lease earlier this year for a building he owns in the Midwest. Though talks began well, they soon grew rocky. The telltale sign that things had truly devolved? The sign-offs on the e-mail exchanges with his prospective tenant.
“As negotiations started to break down, the sign-offs started to get decidedly shorter and cooler,” Mr. Troutwine recalled. “In the beginning it was like, ‘I look forward to speaking with you soon’ and ‘Warmest regards,’ and by the end it was just ‘Best.’ ” The deal was eventually completed, but Mr. Troutwine still felt as if he had been snubbed.
What’s in an e-mail sign-off? A lot, apparently. Those final few words above your name are where relationships and hierarchies are established, and where what is written in the body of the message can be clarified or undermined. In the days before electronic communication, the formalities of a letter, either business or personal, were taught to every third-grader; sign-offs — from “Sincerely” to “Yours truly” to “Love” — came to mind without much effort.
But e-mail is a casual medium, and its conventions are scarcely a decade old. They are still evolving, often awkwardly. It is common for business messages to appear entirely in lower case, and many rapid-fire correspondences evolve from formal to intimate in a few back-and-forths.
Although salutations that begin messages can be tricky — there is a world of difference, it seems, between a “Hi,” a “Hello” and a “Dear” — the sign-off is the place where many writers attempt to express themselves, even when expressing personality, as in business correspondence, is not always welcome.
In other words, it is a land mine. Etiquette and communications experts agree that it is becoming increasingly difficult to say goodbye.
“So many people are not clear communicators,” said Judith Kallos, creator of NetManners.com, a site dedicated to online etiquette, and author of “Because Netiquette Matters.” To be clear about what an e-mail message is trying to say, and about what is implied as well as what is stated, “the reader is left looking at everything from the greeting to the closing for clues,” she said.
Mr. Troutwine is not alone in thinking that an e-mail sender who writes “Best,” then a name, is offering something close to a brush-off. He said he chooses his own business sign-offs in a descending order of cordiality, from “Warmest regards” to “All the best” to a curt “Sincerely.”
When Kim Bondy, a former CNN executive, e-mailed a suitor after a dinner date, she used one of her preferred closings: “Chat soon.” It was her way of saying, “The date went well, let’s do it again,” she said.
She may have been the only one who thought that. The return message closed with the dreaded “Best.” It left her feeling as though she had misread the evening. “I felt like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of formal. I don’t think he liked me,’ ” she said, laughing. “A chill came with the ‘Best.’ ” They have not gone out since.
“Best” does have its fans, especially in the workplace, where it can be an all-purpose step up in warmth from messages that end with no sign-off at all, just the sender coolly appending his or her name.
“I use ‘Best’ for all of my professional e-mails,” said Kelly Brady, a perky publicist in New York. “It’s friendly, quick and to the point.”
Because people read so much into a sign-off, said Richard Kirshenbaum, chief creative officer of the advertising firm Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, he has thought deeply about his preferred closing to professional correspondence, “Warmly, RK.” He did not want something too emotional, like “Love,” or too formal, like “Sincerely.” “ ‘Warmly’ fell comfortably in between,” he said. “I want to convey a sense of warmth and passion, but also be appropriate.”
Which is just what a professional e-mail message should be, many executives say. Surprisingly, the sign-off “xoxo,” offering hugs and kisses, has become common even for those in decidedly nonamorous relationships. Ms. Bondy, who received from 300 to 500 e-mail messages a day while at CNN, was no fan of the “xoxo” farewell, especially when it came from a stranger pitching a story idea. “They’re trying to be warm and familiar when they shouldn’t be,” she said. “It’s inappropriate, and that’s probably the e-mail I’m not going to return.”
Robert Verdi, a fashion stylist and a host of “Surprise by Design,” a makeover reality show on the Discovery Channel, is a self-described “xoxo offender.” “Never in the first or second communication,” he clarified. But after a few friendly phone conversations or e-mail exchanges, he feels comfortable with the affectionate and casual sign-off, though he generally waits for the other party to make the first move. “The other person gives you the cues,” he said. “They send a ‘You’re the best! Love, Alison,’ and you send a ‘Hugs and kisses’ and all of a sudden you’re over that awkward hump and you’re best friends.”
Ms. Kallos said Mr. Verdi’s approach is the correct one. “In business you want to maintain the highest level of formality until the other person indicates otherwise,” she said. “Mirroring isn’t a bad thing to do. You’re letting the other side set the level of familiarity.”
It is also important that the closing is in keeping with the spirit of the message or it may create some sort of cognitive dissonance, said Mary Mitchell, the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette.” “If you’re complaining to a company about a product and you sign off with ‘Warmly,’ you are miscommunicating,” she said.
Many e-mail users don’t bother with a sign-off, and Letitia Baldrige, the manners expert, finds that annoying. “It’s so abrupt,” she said, “and it’s very unfriendly. We need grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace. We should try and be warm and friendly.”
But it is important not to have too much fun with sign-offs, Ms. Baldrige cautioned, before recalling a closing from a man in his early 20s that read, “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” It was “so pedestrian and boring and such an unattractive image to leave with people,” she said. “You want to leave an attractive warm image. Bedbugs are disgusting.”
Not to mention they prove a point Ms. Mitchell makes about e-mail correspondence. “While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write,” she said, “on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.”
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