What tense to use here (sending an email)

Question

What should be the correct tense:

Dear XY,
As agreed, I am sending / I send this email so you can find...

Answer 1

I am sending is the right one to use here, unless you are trying for a dramatic or poetic feel. Both are grammatically correct.

Answer 2

Which tense to use in writing letters is a very old problem. If you're speaking in person, now is now, no problem.

But writing is permanent, and this separates the now of the author, while writing, from the later now of the reader, while reading.

Either of these could be thought of as Present, and referred to in the Present tense, and it's a matter of convention which one gets used. English uses the Present of the Author, and that's why JeffSahol's answer is the correct one.

Classical Latin, on the other hand, used the Present of the Reader, which means the author uses Past to refer to writing time. This makes Latin correspondence sound strange when translated literally into English.

Answer 3

The correct tense would be "I am sending" as it is an action in progress.

However... does the person you are sending the email to really need to be told that you are sending him an email?