Do you have to have a greeting and a closing on every email?

No.

But now don’t get all excited and start dropping the greeting and closing from all emails forever.

There are rules.

Even if no one ever explicitly taught them to you.

Here’s how it works:

The first time you write to someone — whether you know them or not — you should use a greeting and a closing. That looks like this:

Hi Rolando,

Blah blah blah. Stuff.

Best,

Jenny

The greeting is the “Hi Rolando” part and the closing is the “Best” part.

These work to open and close a conversation, just like you would say hello when you walk up to someone (or ‘sup or wave or nod or something) and when you were done talking you’d signal the end of the conversation with bye or thanks (or a high five or whatever). In-person, we have a greater variety of signals to open and close conversations. Email is more limited.

We almost always open and close a conversation in person. We rarely do in text messages because after the first “Hi! This is Jenny.” our texts show in an ongoing thread with the person.