here's a text/letter related question...

why do all of my emails begin with...

Attached please find in pdf format...

and end with

Please let me know if you have any technical issues with these files...

???



oh, and:

for you joyce lovers...

The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes

i'm going to a wedding on bloomsday!

a thank you note for editorial snarkyness and practical advice:

Dear Mr. ABC,

I greatly enjoyed meeting you last week and learning more about your [insert adjective here] multidisciplinary practice. Afterwards, I walked down to XYZ project and was impressed by the detailing and the quality of materials that transcend that sort of project. It would be a pleasure to join the ABC team as a project architect to continue making great projects like XYZ.

I look forward to meeting more of the ABC team as we discussed.

Best wishes!

-TK



ok- I never know what to use at the end: 'best wishes' 'most sincerely' 'ciao!' 'yours truly'- none of these ever feels right, but what alternative do you have?

Should I stick in more info about what I liked about ABC? that they are into sustainability? got generous PTO benefits? I could start tomorrow but have to finish writing a book by the end of the month?



ML- I tend to start my cover letters/cover emails with:
Dear HR Lackey-

In response to your April 9th job posting on Archinect.Com, I am submitting my resume for consideration as a Starchitect-in-Training.

in the subject line i stick: resume attached to get this out of the way.

at the end of the email: please contact me if you require additional information or have an question.



I forgot that bloomsday is coming, now I know why I have joyce on my mind!

lately i've been signing off with simply...



Regards,

Mightylittle
Chairman of the Board
Phone Number
Website

For sign-offs, I like "Regards,". I also like "Sincerely," if it is sincere. Very traditional. But I also often use something like "Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you again, liberty bell"

I'd suggest not using "transcend", TK. Sounds little...spacey. Unless you then us the sign off "Transcendently yours, treekiller".

i use 'respectfully'.

lb- ok, that transend... part is scratched.

regards has won the vote 2-0, sincere has always been too prim for me so thanks!

i use "thanks" @ the end of each email

ha ha, cadalyst, so do i!

i was using "Please let me know if there's anything else i can do at this time." for a while, but people would actually take me up on it.

damn clients.

I remember doing some work for a church design, and the rector commented that i was the only who didn't end my letter/proposal with

"deeply blessed" or "with God's greatest grace"

I got the job, but then the finance folk wouldn't green light the project...fuckers.

wow, that is crazy 'philia.

That's Finnegans Wake. My exgirlfriend/future wife has a copy of Finnegans Wake that she purchased at a used bookstore in D.C. The previous owner had carefully typed a full page letter of loathing for the book and placed it in an envelope which was then affixed to the inside cover. As I recall the letter suggested that the reader not waste his/her time with "this heap of dung".

cadayst and cris... I also end my e-mails with Thanks. I feel like it adds more weight on their decision because I'm already thanking them for the thing I'm requesting.

I tend to use Thank you, or even Thank you for your consideration at the end of those sorts of emails.

i think that i am the only person who uses a heading in my emails. i always begin my emails Hello Dumbass, or Hello Numbnuts.

all my emails have NSFW in the heading

most of the time:

Regards,
AP

sometimes:

Best,
AP

and when appropriate:

Thanks,
AP


although in the future I may have to use techno's crazy example:

Deeply blessed with God's greatest grace on my face,
AP

ap, i do a combo version of yours for extra "properness":

Best regards,
aml

combo version like this?
best regards and thanks for the memories,
TK

that's sort of harsh

Stick with "best regards". Although don't screw up and write "best retards" like I almost just did, LOL.

I have a coworker whose signature at the bottom of emails - to everyone - looks like this:


WonderK's coworker
Master of the Universe
Firm Name
Firm Address
Firm Telephone #

wow...your coworker uses your archinect screen name as his sig file?!?

now that's thinking outside the box.

How about...

Resplendently yours,
Mightylittle
Decepticon Hunter &
Loyal Autobot

I'm not sure how to end invoices though...

however I like, please pay me so I don't have to sell another kidney

i do the Regards or Respectfully or even a Booyakasha....

Finnegans Wake is awesome, even if you haven't read it, like me. Although, i'd prefer to read it aloud in an open mike night, the entire thing.

I've actually started to make some sense of some sections of Finnegan's Wake. I'm ever so proud of myself for that.

Maybe this is a bit of a tangent... But what is the most potent word you can think of?

Or maybe a powerful first line. Say the very first line of a novel that draws you in, says so much without embelishment. A single, simple line or first word that demands a follow up...

Anybody here have an interest in writing?

I write non-fiction ;-)

I had a developer client finish his email with 'Chow'. I'm pretty damn sure he wasn't trying to be funny or ironic either. He was South African after all...:)

There is always the sign off "Cheers". But then, that makes you sound awfully British.

As for a simple line that demands a follow up:

"I'm not sorry."

what are your favorite words?

quixotic
derisory

more as i think of them

dross
joy
plume

Egypt

I was hoping that this thread would be about sexy typefaces...

mmmm...sexy typefaces.

I friend once made up a word, Coloptreflexiv, that basically means a words that looks like how it's spelled. Like boob for instance. b-o-o-b is the perfect spelling for boob because it invokes the image of boobs.



boob.

so type about sexy typefaces!
do you mean Brad Pitt sexy?
or Lucy Lui sexy?

i mentioned it in the Portfolio FONT thread, but it seems appropriate here. especially since tk demanded that i/we type about sexy typefaces...



look at the bounce on those numerals! i love 'em.

Designed by Tobias Frere-Jones at Font Bureau, Hightower is based on Nicolas Jenson's 15th century Venetian Roman...see more about it here.

and i don't mean brad pitt sexy...that's gross, i'm a dude, man!

but maybe kate winslet sexy.


{/}Light Bulb Goes On Above Head{/idea}


Pick a celebrity and match a font with them. Then start another one for someone else to finish.

I'll go first.

Kate Winslet is to Hightower

as

Sean Connery is to _________.

Clarendon Bold

Why are cover letters so f'ing hard?! This should be easy by now. But the whole new-grad, economy-in-the-crapper thing has me pretty down. I just keep thinking "They don't want to be reading this, they don't need people. Nobody needs people. I'm just bothering them, so why does it matter what I write because they've already decided to throw it away."

R- practice, practice, practice - it's took me 10+ years before I got good at this sort of business writing.

(ps, thanks for bumping TTT).

You're right, Rationalist. Writing well is hard work. One of the best axioms I've heard on this: "good writing is re-writing." Another: "If I'd had more time, I'd have written less."

The point being: its takes time to craft clear text that does the job. It takes even more time to winnow things to the bone and do the job concisely for a busy reader.

It's all worth it, though. When you read the raft of poorly written crap that most "professional" people normally churn out, a brief, clear missive stands out like a jewel.

And TK's correct, too. It's takes a long time for most of us to acquire and hone this important skill.

haha, thanks guys. I have the benefit of being a pretty good writer (or so I've been told), but I think my problem is that I'm getting down about my chances before I even begin. Maybe this belongs more in one of the economy threads, but I'm just finding it difficult to maintain the positive, upbeat attitude that I know I need to have to generate anyone's interest.

Plus, I'm applying for jobs in some pretty far-away places (yes, diabase, I'm FINALLY applying to some Melbourne offices!) and know that most of these things get tossed right away, because it's too much work to bring someone in from abroad. *sigh* I think I've done the best I can though, and just need to get on with it. Got to keep reminding myself that the worst thing they can do is not give me a job, which puts me in no different position than I'm already in.

im waiting to use this thread,, ill come back soon

Don't give in to the dark side, Rationalist! Try to stay optimistic.

By the way, I like your resume'... very creative and eye-catching. (Fight on, BTW.)