The Editor's Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
Use “Sincerely,” “Best wishes,” or “Regards” (or “Warm regards,” “Best regards,” “Kind regards”) to close a formal or business email. Don’t use casual sign-offs like “Cheers” or “Best” in formal communication.
Use “Regards” when another formal closing (“Sincerely,” “Best wishes”) does not seem appropriate, but neither does an informal closing such as “Best” or “Cheers.”
Use the right sign-off depending on the tone of your email. Formal closings include “Sincerely,” “Best wishes,” and “Kind regards.” Informal or personal closings include “Cheers” and “Love.”
Use either a comma or a colon after a greeting. The colon is preferred in business or other formal communication in U.S. style.
Standard contractions include those with “not” (“don’t,” “isn’t”), forms of the “be” verb (“I’m,” “she’s”), the “have” verb (“I’ve,” “he’s”), and “will” and “would” (“I’ll,” “you’d”).
Contractions are common in speech and informal writing but avoided in formal texts.
Contractions are shortened forms in which some letters are omitted. An apostrophe usually marks the contraction. Here is a list of more than 70 standard contractions in English.
Various phrases can begin an email, depending on formality (dear So-and-So, hi, hello, good morning). Using an appropriate salutation can set the right tone for your correspondence.
Don’t capitalize greetings like “good morning” and “hello,” except a word at the start of a sentence. In an email salutation, capitalize all words if it stands alone but only the first word if followed by a name.
There is no apostrophe in “Veterans Day.” The noun veterans is considered descriptive instead of possessive in the name of this holiday.