Yours Faithfully.
By: Dravida Seetharam
Tags: Letters

I finished reading the book — Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession. One of the two heroes, Hungry Paul participates in a competition to write a novel closing salutation. The story motivated me to deep dive into the letter endings we usually use.

Writing letters has not been easy. I remember my first letter to my class teacher to tell him that I was sick and needed sick leave. I struggled with three drafts for a letter of three sentences. How do I address my teacher?- Sir, Dear Sir or My dear Sir. I was not sure which opening words would make my teacher happy. I was the ending of the letter, which was another struggle. Thanking you, I remain, yours faithfully, yours sincerely, etc. were some of the options. The predicament of the right salutations and closures always troubled me throughout my life. Writing to your kith and kin and friends is a different story. I choose a different set of words when I write letters in my mother tongue though I do not remember writing any letter. Ending a letter is crucial as it is the last thing your audience will read. It sets the tone for future correspondence, allows for next steps or instruction and helps build rapport with your reader.

Yours faithfully — what is the origin? As per the Oxford Handbook of Commercial correspondence, if the letter begins with Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, Dear Madam, or Dear Sir/Madam, the complimentary closure should be “Yours faithfully”. If the letter begins with a personal name, e.g. Dear Mr James, Dear Mrs Robinson, or Dear Ms Jasmin, it should be “Yours sincerely”.

Faithfully has a religious connotation. The word faithful originated from early 14th century: “sincerely religious, devout, pious,” especially about Christian practice; mid-14century., “loyal (to a lord, friend, spouse, etc. ); true; honest, trustworthy,” from faith + -ful.

Sincerely comes from the Latin “Sincerus” meaning “clean, pure, untainted.” The word “sincerely” appeared as early as 1700, and is still used as a sign-off conveying a sense of “in earnest” or “genuinely”. There are other examples where I end the conversation: I remain in addition to “Yours faithfully”.

As digital communication evolved, writing letters has gone into oblivion. I am living in the age of cacophony. Everyone loves to talk, and I have not heard many writing any physical letters. I share my moments only through new-age tools. Students do not write essays any more, and multiple-choice questions decide their level of understanding any subject. In the age of speed and instant gratification, writing has taken a toll. Letter writing, as a social and cultural practice, is coming to an end. The role played by the letters in the everyday life of men and women is at the deep end. Postcards are now famous only for sales promotion and occasionally death messages. Postal envelopes and inland letter cards have become extinct. Even my rural cousins prefer WhatsApp, and email mode for their communication and the new messaging tools do not require any salutations and endings. Life has become very simple and straight.

Culture has influenced the letter closing styles to some extent. In Europe, it is common to address a person as Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. and close the letter with “ Best regards” or “Freundlichem Gruss”. In the US, it is a lot easier. The letters start with John or Keith and do on, and ends with Malcolm or Michael. Brevity has become the order of the day as the time resource has become very scarce. It seems faithfulness and sincerity have no place, and it not necessary to convey the above emotions every time I write a letter. I follow the salutations only when I write a formal written to a Government official. These rules do not apply for an email format.

I have decided to drop everything with abbreviations such as GM for Good Morning and WBG for ‘With Best regards’ and emogies emerging.

What do you think?

Photo by Marliese Streefland on Unsplash