Chapter I. Theoretical foundations and approaches to the study of politeness 7

Writing an Email

	Language
Context	Formal/Neutral	Informal
Name	Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs Carvalho	Hi/Hello Peter Peter, …
Previous contact	Thank you for your email of… Further to your last email, … I apologize for not getting in contact with you before now.	Thanks for your email. Re your email, … Sorry I haven’t written for ages, but I’ve been really busy.
Reason for writing	I am writing in connection with… I am writing with regard to… In reply to your email, here are… Your name was given to me by… We would like to point out that…	Just a short note about… I’m writing about… Here’s the … you wanted. I got your name from… Please note that…
Giving information	I’m writing to let you know that… We are able to confirm that… I am delighted to tell you that… We regret to inform you that…	Just a note to say… We can confirm that… Good news! Unfortunately, …
Attachments	Please find attached my report. I’m sending you… as a pdf file.	I’ve attached… Here is the … you wanted.
Asking for information	Could you give me some information about … I would like to know … I’m interested in receiving/finding out …	Can you tell me a little more about … I’d like to know … Please send me …
Requests	I’d be grateful if you could … I wonder if you could … Do you think I could have …? Thank you in advance for your help in this matter.	Please could you … Could you …? Can I have …? I’d appreciate your help on this.
Promising action	I will … I’ll investigate the matter. I will contact you again shortly.	I’ll … I’ll look into it. I’ll get back to you soon.
Offering help	Would you like me to …? If you wish, I would be happy to … Let me know whether you would like me to …	Do you want me to …? Shall I … ? Let me know if you’d like me to …
Final comments	Thank you for your help. Do not hesitate to contact us again information. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. My direct line is …	Thanks again for … Let me know if you need anything else. Just give me a call if you have any questions. My number is …
Close	I’m looking forward to … (+ing) Give my regards to … Best wishes Regards	Looking forward to … (+ing) Best wishes to … Speak to/see you soon. Bye (for now)/ All the best

Computer-mediated communication (CMC), as suggested by L. Sproull and S. Kiesler lacks the social context cues which FTF (Face-to-Face) offers, such as the physical environment and nonverbal behaviours⁸⁶. R. Ma thus suggests that CMC “has changed the traditional view of communication environments”⁸⁷. Although its online nature makes nonverbal cues inaccessible in email communication, it has other ways of conveying this kind of communication. For example, some researchers⁸⁸ find that writers can vary their choices of topics and punctuation marks and use words as relational cues to amplify meaning. Other researchers⁸⁹ point out the important role of “electronic paralanguage”, as emotive icons are known. Similar claims have been made by J. Walther that CMC users, in real-life settings, will eventually develop conventions and understandings which enable them to establish socio-emotional communication⁹⁰, for example through emotive icons.

According to Metz, there are four main uses for emotional icons (emoticons):
1) to verbalize physical cues (hahaha);
2) to describe actions (*many hugs and kisses*);
3) to emphasize (It’s NOT my fault!);
4) to signify facial expressions ( :-) ).
Currently, in virtual communication, including e-mails written in Uzbek, "emotions" (a graphic representation of your feelings) are widely used in the form of periods, commas, hyphens and other symbols. They are at least somehow able to paint colors emotionally. The use of laughter makes correspondence more lively - the author conveys not only his thoughts, but also his feelings. The most common funny characters in the Uzbek language: