Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap.
Is it time for an informality backclash? Where do you stand on the grand salutation question? Do you instinctively write “Dear…” even to your siblings? Do you drop any attempt at deference even when writing to your boss, professor, government representative? Do you mix-and-match depending on your audience’s status, age, or culture?
For the initial salutation of those whom I know little or nothing, or who are in the position of “power/authority”, I would be more formal, especially to “[my] boss, professor, government representative”. Whereas, for those closest to me, I would show my “true color” and reply with off-hand/offensive jokes and acronyms, such as LOL, OMG, WTF!
Recently, I’ve loosened up my formality to exclude salutations and to include short, quick sentence, such as “Okay. No problem” and “Thanks.” However, I still try to be formal within the context of cultural salutations and definitely age, such as “Ate” or “Manang”, which are equivalent to saying “Madam” in Filipino for Tagalog or Ilocano dialects, respectively.
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Here is the result of my vote numbered 222 (notice the triple-digit numerology):
Thank you for voting!
The world is too complicated for a single strategy. It depends who I’m writing to. 70.72% (157 votes)
Let’s not get overworked here: hi/hey/hello works just fine. 19.82% (44 votes)
As much as I try, I can’t help adding ‘Dear X’ no matter who’s reading. 5.86% (13 votes)
Straight to the point: salutations belong on those things called ‘letters.’ 3.6% (8 votes)
Total Votes: 222
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