A while ago some people at Grooveshark were discussing why anyone would bother signing their emails — after all, the sender is listed in the From: field!
One could make the same case for not signing snail mail, after all, the sender is listed on the return address!
In addition to the formality and convention arguments, signing an email, to me indicates that you have finished writing the email. If I get a signed email then I can be confident that you did not accidentally hit send before you finished.
Signing is also helpful when sending forwards or replying to messages where you include the original message. When your recipient reaches your signature, they can assume that anything following was not part of your original message. This can be a real time saver because then they do not have to scroll through the entire email to make sure that you are not also dissecting/commenting on portions of it that appear later.
Of course if you have your email client set to automatically sign all of your messages with your name rather than just your contact information, you aren’t helping things at all.
Andrew Wise
February 13, 2008 at 8:22 am
another thing to note, when you sign your email, you might also leave your blog, a phone number, alternate email address, etc.
Andrew Wise
VP of Business Development
Grooveshark, an EMG Co.
201 SE 2nd Ave Ste 209
Gainesville, FL 32601
Cell: (352) 514-5927
Fax: (727) 231-8312
Grooveshark.com
AndrewSWise.com
Jay
February 13, 2008 at 8:30 am
Very good point, and definitely a good idea for external communication in particular. Additional contact information like that is a great thing to have auto-appended to your messages if you find yourself using it a lot, but I think it’s best to sign your name manually.