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How to greet someone in an email during Covid-19 without sounding tone deaf
- ‘Emails need new language, new ways to express warmth and empathy and establish connections,’ says one expert – what worked before the pandemic won’t work now
- Read and re-read your email before you send it, and use appropriate language and tone; save the gallows humour and edgy signoffs for social media
Reading Time:5 minutes
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![Email greetings have become a beacon of goodwill amid Covid-19. Photo: Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/d8/images/methode/2020/09/18/f504f500-f8b7-11ea-a41c-8cbd1416100a_image_hires_131926.jpg?itok=XkkUdWso&v=1600406384)
A few weeks ago, a cheery email landed in inboxes around the world. “Hope this email finds you well!!” it began.
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There’s a pandemic raging; more than 27 million people have been ill and nearly a million have died. The email’s double exclamation marks were irritating: when people are feeling fragile they don’t need tone-deaf emails.
“Stay safe and hang in there”, the generic email ended, perhaps to disarm hostile readers who might otherwise have slammed down the delete button.
This year has been a disaster everywhere, in nearly every facet of life, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising unemployment, economies down the toilet, socially distanced lives, a future so unpredictable that making plans for next week seems unthinkable. A vaccine is a dim light on the far horizon. If anything, the pandemic has stripped the need for pretension, so cheery greetings sound hollow and insincere.
![As the pandemic has raged, email has become one of the most important channels of communication. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto As the pandemic has raged, email has become one of the most important channels of communication. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2020/09/18/f0c7ff6a-f8b6-11ea-a41c-8cbd1416100a_972x_131926.jpg)
Randy Malamud’s book, titled Email, and Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, address the problem of internet communication.
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