Dame Isadora is back on the warpath… Possibly take cover?
Example 1:
“Thanks for reaching out. Please know that I did get in touch with the appropriate department and I’m just awaiting an update from them.”
Example 2:
“Good morning. We have recently received a booking request from yourself for a test.”
(Both are from real email replies I have recently been shown.)
What, if anything, is wrong with these sentences?
Nothing?
Everything?
Reach out—where did that come from? and why?
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have blogged about the abomination of “reach out” before, back in 2022. You can read that rant again if you wish. But the situation is getting worse. Now the expression is being used much more than before. Apparently everywhere. Which merits a further rant, I’d say.
The Oxford Dictionary gives two meanings. The first is clear and non-controversial.
The second? Make up your own mind.
But mainly North American? I am not at all sure that is still the case, given how much “reaching out” is being done on this side of the pond. The contagion seems to be spreading.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary gives a different, and narrower definition:
Um, no. In example 1, the “reacher-out”—apologies for concocting such an appalling word—was not trying to do something for other people. He or she was asking for information. And that simple request prompted the response in example 1.
Which fits the Oxford definition, not the Merriam-Webster one.
How old is this formulation? Difficult to tell but possibly fairly recent.
Merriam-Webster has lots of examples but none is earlier than 2023. Wiktionary has one from 1989. The earliest quotation in Green’s dictionary of slang dates from 1986.
What’s wrong with “reach out” anyway?
I would say it’s ugly. Also unnecessary. The normal, neutral English word is “contact”, in my opinion. But not everyone would agree. (I would say they are wrong, of course, but then I am an acknowledged pedant, am I not?)
The linguaholic website, for example, does not object to the use of “reach out”. It’s not a British website, however. It was started by a chap in Switzerland who loves languages and linguistics. He has colleagues in Japan and the USA. Their language focus seems to be on helping people for whom English is a foreign language. And we all know how difficult English idioms can be.
I approve of their passion. Less sure about their tolerance of “reach out”, however.
The linguaholic founder takes a pretty relaxed view. In the article I’ve linked to, he provides TEN ways of saying the same thing in an email. He categorises 6 of them as formal and 4 as informal or casual. He says—and here I would disagree, strongly—that
“I am contacting you” is formal and “slightly less personal [than ‘I am reaching out’] and is most often used when the sender and recipient have almost no relationship at all.”
However, that might explain the increasing prevalence of “reach out” in place of “contact”. Is it supposed to sound more friendly? helpful? chatty?
Possibly.
But I’m not sure it has the intended effect on native speakers of English and particularly Brits.
For many Brits—and I definitely side with them here—”reach out” is yet another import from across the pond that we think should have been allowed to drown en route. (Prior strangulation optional.)
But apart from “reaching out”, example 1 is fine, isn’t it?
Sadly, no, though it could have been worse. It could have said:
“Thanks for reaching out. Please know that I did reach out to the appropriate department and I’m just awaiting them to reach out back to me.”
Yes, I agree it’s horrible, but is it that much worse than the original?
I exaggerate. But only a little. The writer of example 1 did at least use the hideous “reaching out” only once. I was reassured to see that the formulation “getting in touch” was also used, since it counts as normal English. But…
Did you notice that use of “Please know that…” in the second sentence? I have never seen that expression before. And it sent a shudder down my damely spine, partly because it’s ugly and abrupt, and partly because the writer used it twice in the same email.
I suspect that it’s another attempt at being friendly or helpful or chatty. Possibly because it sounds less formal than “You should know that…” or “Please be aware that…” or “For your information…”
But the phrase is not needed at all, is it?
Why not ditch the “reaching out” and the “please know” and write, more simply:
“Thanks for your email. I did get in touch with the appropriate department and I’m waiting to hear back from them.”
If you want friendly, chatty etc, I’d suggest using my revised version every time.
But maybe you disagree? Please reach out and add a comment if you do 😉
Happy Birthday to Yourself
¿Que?
Apologies for channelling my inner Manuel (from Fawlty Towers). But since the alternative would have been somewhat cruder, I thought you wouldn’t object…
My heading is nonsense as an alternative to “Happy birthday to you”. We would all accept that, I think.
And yet…
Let me remind you of example 2, which was:
“Good morning. We have recently received a booking request from yourself for a test.”
What is wrong with:
“Good morning. We have recently received your request to book a test.”
My version is shorter, clearer, and avoids that relatively new horror, “yourself” instead of “you”.
It is becoming ever more prevalent, especially in spoken English. I have heard it from ticket inspectors on trains, receptionists in very upmarket hotels, and various other people in business who should know better.
And another thing…
It reminds me of another (incorrect) use of language, one that I’ve ranted about before. “Between you and I.” Remember that one? I am pretty sure that people use it for two reasons. First, because they don’t understand why it’s grammatically wrong. And second, because they think it sounds somehow more polite or posher than “between you and me”.
I have a feeling that “request from yourself” falls into the same category. And for the same two inadequate reasons.
Please, PLEASE, don’t use it.
How should you use “yourself”?
Since this is a relatively recent linguistic horror, it doesn’t appear in my copy of Modern English Usage. But it is worth stressing how a word like yourself (or myself, herself, himself etc) is supposed to be used. These pronouns can be used for emphasis, or reflexively.
He even began to feel guilty himself.
This is an example of use for emphasis. He clearly didn’t expect to feel that way.
Anne managed to restrain herself.
This is a reflexive example. It would be wrong to say “Anne managed to restrain her.” Indeed, that latter version would suggest to me that Anne is restraining some other female, rather than herself.
There are other ways of using words like myself. They’re not exactly incorrect, but Fowler does not recommend them. Nor do I.
Examples such as: “His anxiety communicated itself to Fred and myself,” sound pretentious, don’t they? And there’s nothing wrong with “His anxiety communicated itself to Fred and me.” (Not, please note, “to Fred and I.”)
So I repeat. If tempted to say something like, “I have a message for yourself,” please DON’T DO IT. It’s an abomination for which the ghosts of pedants past will haunt you.
Thank you. I Pedantique-Ryter
Your example every time, dear Dame. Clear, concise and to the point – exactly what is required in the context. All this touchy, feely going around the houses nonsense is a waste of bandwidth.
Thank you, Liz dear. I find your expression “a waste of bandwidth” both surprising and à propos. In spite of its very modern context, I may adopt it myself.
Oh this is such a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Dame Isadora.
I’m listening to a really useful and beautifully done podcast to help train my subconscous brain to change its habits at the moment. And they really are helping. BUT there is a point where the otherwise perfect narrator says “between you and I”. And it jerks me out of my gently sub-hypnotic state every time.
Your problem, dear Sophie, is one I share. We who understand the rules of grammar cannot help but be offended when we hear a formulation as bad as “between you and I”.
Oh please, please rant away. I am an American and recall first hearing the abominable “reach out” around or before 2020 at work, usually from people who worked for a big international IT consulting firm. Made me shudder.
The you and I was even more frequent, like fingernails on chalkboard. Mind you all these fellow employees had minimally bachelor degrees. It was hard to not say anything (and sometimes I did).
I can top the revolting “yourself”. “Myself and Harry will…”
Sorry, the reach phase was common around 2005, not 2020.
Thank you, Kathy. It’s good to hear that there are sensible grammatical folk on your side of the pond. Both sides have those who are much too happy to adopt ghastly neologisms like “reaching out”. Sadly, they know no better. And I, too, shudder at “Myself and Harry will…”.
I used to feel cruel pointing out that you don’t say ‘to I’ when I read NWS manuscripts, but to me it immediately made the work feel amateur. Likewise when one of the self-help videos I’m fond of tells me to ‘lay down’, it loses all credibility. Lay down what? A fine wine? The ‘myself’ thing has grown common in speech, presumably from nervous interviewees hypercorrecting, just as the tendency to answer ‘that’s correct’ instead of ‘yes’. And where does the Dame stand on ‘gifted’ for ‘gave’, my sister’s bugbear? When it cropped up in a Poldark episode it was particularly galling.
Coincidentally I now see there’s a letter in the Radio Times complaining about ‘gifted’. Not just me and Katie, then, – or should it be Katie and I?
Made me smile, Jane. Since your second sentence is a shortened form of “It is not just…” and since the verb to be takes the same case before and after, it should be “[It is] not just Katie and I, then,” I’m afraid. But at least you had the grace to notice that you might have made a grammatical mistake. Well done for that.
It may be equally cruel, Jane dear, to leave the poor souls in ignorance of what they should say.
I agree with you about the misuse of lay and lie. Most annoying when wrongly used.
I had not previously thought about gifted for gave, but I think you and dear Katie have a point. The cause may be, at least in part, that speakers/writers are trying to be extra-polite or extra friendly and so choose a word which they see as being more sophisticated.
Add – “going forward”… And that wretched “I was sat…” Who sat you there?
The “Reaching out” and “yourself/myself” stuff sounds like insecurity – wanting to sound polite and helpful and not curt and, as a result, completely over-compensating with a load of ugly, alienating waffle.
I do agree with you, Louise, on the insecurity point. Indeed, I said as much in the blog. I sigh over going forward which is another import from across the pond, I believe. As is I was sat which, as you rightly say, has a different meaning altogether. All we pedants can do, sadly, is to keep correcting the mistakes and hope that the correct usage will sink in. One day.