This Week’s Writing Tip — Bag a Bunch of Greetings

With the worldwide web and the advent of email, we’ve all been pushed to do more what you’d term, letter writing. The good news about all this is that it’s much easier to dash off an email or a text than it is to write a letter, put it in an envelope and then find somewhere to mail it off to whomever.

The resume builder and job site, LiveCareer.com recently did a study on sending emails and texts. Of the 1,000 workers polled, 40% say they spend — time-wise — about three weeks to more than a month every year on work email correspondence.

That breaks down to 520 to 780 hours a year.

When it comes to hours spent per day sorting through an insanely growing number of emails a day:

• *58% say they spend no more than two-hours a day on email
• *Two hours? Really?
• *That 58% — it turns out — have the least work experience (usually 1 to 2 years)
• *The number drops to 36% for those with the longest work experience

Then the company looked at how you ought to greet someone when sending an email or a text. The worst possible greetings to use in the next email — or snail mail — letter you send are:

• *To whom it may concern
• *No greeting at all
• *Hey
• *Hey there
• *Hi

  The best greetings are:

• *Good morning or good afternoon
• *Greetings
• *The old faithful — Dear sir or madam
• *Another old faithful — Dear name
• *Happy whatever day it is