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Lately, I encounter marketing emails which are concluded with a question and followed by a name/position signature. Schematically, these are constructed as follows:

I notice you were once interested. Here is more information I would like to bother you with.

Are you familiar with these newer technologies?

Joe Doe,
The Chief Marketing Specialist

Is ending an email with a question like that permissible?

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  • Would you do it in your own language?
    – Mitch
    Jun 1, 2012 at 1:55
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    I would not, which is why I am asking.
    – Sasha
    Jun 1, 2012 at 1:56
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    I'm voting to close because I think this is offtopic and has nothing to do with English as such.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 1, 2012 at 2:05
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    @JamesJiao In my opinion unsolicited marketing emails should not be asking any questions at all. They should politely present the information. Question at the end of the email prompts for action, and since this is a marketing email, I will find it an unnecessary distraction. I asked the question here because I have never seen such a thing in Russian emails, where I would consider it rude. So I asked here, only to find this community somewhat unwelcoming.
    – Sasha
    Jun 1, 2012 at 3:18
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    @Sasha, I think this was just a trick to make the email less likely to be caught by spam filters. The explanation for that is outside the scope of this site, but basically the smartest spam filters classify messages as spam or regular emails based on patterns. An email ending with a question is more likely to be regular email than spam.
    – b.roth
    Jun 4, 2012 at 11:46

2 Answers 2

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It is quite common, now even more since instant chat... People make emails like instant messages...

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I do that all the time, but I am friends with all of my workmates. If in doubt, or if you want to impress someone, structure your email like an essay.

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