Is my replay the best English in an email?

[fl]

Hi,

I received my manager's email and I replied to him, see below please. I have the follow questions.

1. My manager wrote "send back to myself ..." is right? How about "send back to me ..."
2. In my reply email, I attached a file with the email. "Please find the signed document." is the native English? If not, what is your suggestion?

Thanks,



................
Hi, Matt:



Please find the signed document.





Thanks,


......................



Hi Robert,



Here’s the correct attachment for your review.



Please sign, scan & send back to myself, Nate and Mary.



Thanks.

[micky]

On Wed, 3 Jul 2013 02:31:41 -0700 (PDT), fl <rxj...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I received my manager's email and I replied to him, see below please. I have the follow questions.
>
>1. My manager wrote "send back to myself ..." is right? How about "send back to me ..."

You're right. He's wrong. "Myself" and even other "self" words are
very much overused.

Words that end in -self are either intensive or replexive.

If intensive, they should follow a name or pronoun which refers to the
same person. "I myself will take you to school"; "I'll talk to Joe
himself"

If the two words are separated, it should be a valid reflxive use,
where the -self word is the same person as the subject of the sentence
or clause. I will talk to them myself. Joe finished the project
himself

In your sentence, "Send back to ....." the verb is in the imperative
mood and the subject, not explicit but understood, is "You". You send
it back to me. I can send something to myself, you cannot
(grammatically) send something to myself. The only -self you can
send to is yourself. Only you can only send to yourself.

Your choice, "Send back to me" is a great improvement. The proper
use of "me" declined because of children who would says "Tommy and me
went to the movies" and would be corrected to say "Tommy and I".
These children were too uneducated or stupid to understand why "I" was
right and "me" was wrong, and all that many of them took from the
correction was "Don't use "me". So now they use "myself" almost
everywhere. For example. "Tommy and myself went to the movies". No
kidding. I've heard sentences like this between several and many
times.

You can probably get away with using correct English in front of him,
but I wouldn't correct your boss until he's not your boss. Unless
he asks you.

>2. In my reply email, I attached a file with the email. "Please find the signed document." is the native English?

I would say "the attached signed document". It's businessese, as
spoken by the Busnisians.

> If not, what is your suggestion?

Stop reading Usenet via google and read it the proper way. Get a free
newsreader and a free newsserver, and you won't be putting all these
annoying blank lines.

[Anton Shepelev]

micky:

> > In my reply email, I attached a file with the
> > email. "Please find the signed document." is the
> > native English?
>
> I would say "the attached signed document". It's
> businessese, as spoken by the Busnisians.

Didn't you mean: "Please, find attached the singed
document?"

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[Bill McCray]

On 7/3/2013 6:09 AM, micky wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Jul 2013 02:31:41 -0700 (PDT), fl <rxj...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I received my manager's email and I replied to him, see below please. I have the follow questions.
>>
>> 1. My manager wrote "send back to myself ..." is right? How about "send back to me ..."
>
> You're right. He's wrong. "Myself" and even other "self" words are
> very much overused.
>
> Words that end in -self are either intensive or replexive.
>
> If intensive, they should follow a name or pronoun which refers to the
> same person. "I myself will take you to school"; "I'll talk to Joe
> himself"
>
> If the two words are separated, it should be a valid reflxive use,
> where the -self word is the same person as the subject of the sentence
> or clause. I will talk to them myself. Joe finished the project
> himself

Those two feel to me to be intensive uses. The sentences sound fine
without the "self" words. These are reflexive uses:

"I will talk to them by myself."
"Joe finished the project by himself."
"I took a picture of myself."
"Jim hit himself with the hammer."

Bill in Kentucky

[Tony Cooper]

On Wed, 3 Jul 2013 02:31:41 -0700 (PDT), fl <rxj...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I received my manager's email and I replied to him, see below please. I have the follow questions.
>
>1. My manager wrote "send back to myself ..." is right? How about "send back to me ..."
>2. In my reply email, I attached a file with the email. "Please find the signed document." is the native English? If not, what is your suggestion?

While "please find" and "enclosed please find" are very commonly found
phrases in (American) English letters, I can't stand them. They imply
that the attachment has been hidden and the reader should embark on a
search for the attachment.

Of course the reader will find the attachment if you attached it. It
will be hard to miss since it's in the same envelope or even stapled
to the letter.

Better, in my opinion, to write "Enclosed is the signed document"
("are" if "documents") or "The signed document is enclosed".

It's not a treasure hunt.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[Bill McCray]

On 7/3/2013 10:23 AM, Tony Cooper wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Jul 2013 02:31:41 -0700 (PDT), fl <rxj...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I received my manager's email and I replied to him, see below please. I have the follow questions.
>>
>> 1. My manager wrote "send back to myself ..." is right? How about "send back to me ..."
>> 2. In my reply email, I attached a file with the email. "Please find the signed document." is the native English? If not, what is your suggestion?
>
> While "please find" and "enclosed please find" are very commonly found
> phrases in (American) English letters, I can't stand them. They imply
> that the attachment has been hidden and the reader should embark on a
> search for the attachment.

If the enclosure is there, it is easy to find it, so I read this as
"Please find it, because if you can't, I forgot to enclose it."

> Of course the reader will find the attachment if you attached it. It
> will be hard to miss since it's in the same envelope or even stapled
> to the letter.
>
> Better, in my opinion, to write "Enclosed is the signed document"
> ("are" if "documents") or "The signed document is enclosed".

Definitely.

Bill in Kentucky

[John Varela]

One of my many pet peeves, too. I think it comes from fear of using
the first person and the active voice. "I enclose this and that"
scares them.

--
John Varela

[micky]

You're right. My two bad examples of reflexive ( I will talk to
them myself. Joe finished the project himself) could both be
rephrased as I myself will talk to them. Joe himself finished the
project.

Thanks for the correction.

[mathi...@gmail.com]

[Anton Shepelev]

mathimca31:

> Нere's the correct attachment for your review.

Attached *is* the correct invoice/schedule/specifi-
cation for your review. (Name the kind of the docu-
ment rather than using the generic word "attach-
ment".)

> Please sign, scan & send back to myself, Nate and
> Mary.

Please, sign it and send a scan back to me, Nate,
and Mary. (In your sentence 'sign' has no object.)

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