4 Passive Aggressive Ways to End an Email

1. Respectfully

Signing off respectfully just means everything said in the email was insulting, and the writer wants to play it down. It’s pretty much the adult version of “no offence.” So, that email from your writing sem professor basically just said “no offence, but your lit review’s proposition is bifurcated.”

2. A Detailed Signature

This one is for when you email your friends that didn’t get into an Ivy League, especially for the friends that go to Michigan.

Sara Ashkenasy

The Wharton School

The University of Pennsylvania

The Ivy League

Not Penn State

3. Check the piazza

When a CIS Professor is unamused by incompetent CIS students emailing him questions he already answered on the piazza, he can just sign off with:

Check the piazza,

Prof Chirlian

4. Warmly

Warmly is the worst offender of passive-aggression as far as email sign-offs go. You usually get warmly from someone either higher up than you or from someone teaching you. It’s their way of saying, “hey pal, I’m just like you. I get where you’re coming from.” Similar to "respectfully", it softens all the harsh critiques of you earlier on in the email.