“I will be grateful for any help you can provide.” “Thank you for considering my request.” (Just by reading to the end of your message, your reader has considered your request.) If you are among them, here are courteous alternatives to consider: On the contrary, they are trying to be polite.
Of course, people who write “Thank you in advance” do not intend to be presumptuous or thoughtless. If the reader receives thanks in advance, will his or her actions be thoughtlessly ignored? “Thank you in advance” also suggests that the reader will not be thanked later on, after fulfilling the request. The writer presumes that you will provide what is requested and so is “thanking you in advance.” Would the proper response be “You are welcome in advance”? That silly suggestion shows how “Thank you in advance” comes across wrong. People hate the phrase for a couple of reasons. In comments on another blog post this week, one writer said she hated “Thank you in advance” and another wanted to know why the phrase deserves hatred. “Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.” “Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.” In email, letters, and memos that include a request, writers often end with one of these statements: It may seem like a small thing but well-said gratitude goes a long way. And always thank someone after they have done what you asked (or even simply considered it and told you it’s not possible).
I really appreciate any help you can provide.You can substitute one of these alternatives: Of course people who write thanks in advance aren’t trying to be offensive or presumptuous but that’s how it comes across (particularly to the native eye). It is another way you shortcut the interaction and make the receiver feel left out. Thus by saying thanks in advance you short-change the interaction by presuming this person will do something even before they have agreed.Īnother problem with this phrase is it implies that your obligation to say thank you is done and you don’t need to express gratitude after the person actually does what you have asked them to do. I suspect both of these approaches would inhibit you from getting both bread…and water. Thanks in advance!” or asking your spouse to pick up some bread on the way home and saying “thanks in advance!” before they can agree or respond.
In the non-virtual world this might look something like asking a waiter: “Could you bring me another drink. Thus the “thanks in advance!” precedes any action or communication on their side. When you ask someone to do something over email by the time they read to the end of the email they have neither done what you have asked nor have agreed. However, in the world of email this is not the case. In the non-email world the “thank you” usually quickly follows the request because the action you have requested or at least agreement to carrying out that action quickly follows the request.
In the non-email world it is a word you say after or during the action you are grateful for but not something you say concurrently with asking someone to do something. What do you imply when you use this phrase? Thanks or thank you is an expression of gratitude or acknowledgement of something someone has done. I find this trend bordering on offensive. There is a new trend in email writing to send someone a request and then sign it with “Thanks in advance.” or even worse “Thanks in advance !!!“.