BW/BR

What is with people writing “BR” or “BW” as the closing to their emails? “BR”, of course, is short for “Best Regards” and “BW” stands for “Best Wishes.” If someone is using an abbreviation because she or he is apparently too lazy to write out the entire closing, I don’t believe that this person truly does have “best regards” for me. Sure, it is time-consuming to write those few extra letters (though you can always have them inserted automatically into your outgoing messages), but it does make a difference.

I’ll have more to say about professional, polite emails another time, but for now, BW.

--Curly