![]() Because you want your recipient to discover what you’ve attached, please find works.īut, for the reasons I just gave you above, you’re still better off avoiding it. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with saying something like “Please find the attached document.” Although find can mean to come upon something by searching for it (hence the smart-alec lawyer’s assertion that my résumé must be lost), find also means to recognize or discover that something is present. Is please find attached grammatically correct? Your letters will be much clearer and more engaging without them. They’re high-sounding but low-performing. You see canned phrases like enclosed please find and as per all the time in letters. Is “please find attached” essential legal language?Īttached please find reads like legalese, so you might wonder whether it’s necessary in a legal document. It is instead a set phrase in imperative form that does a not-very-requesty job. This underscores that please find attached is not much of a request at all. In fact, it would be just plain weird to put this into another request form like Could you please find the document attached? or I would be very grateful if you would find the document attached. There’s no need to boss around the other person to go about finding things, since the sentence is just communicating “I have attached a document for you”. The popular English language blog, Separated by a Common Language, puts it this way: It’s also a bit redundant to say that something is attached and then direct the recipient to please find it.Īnother oddity with attached please find is that it’s a command when it doesn’t need to be. Please find attached is wordy jargon at its worst. Even in formal correspondence, your goal should be to communicate in a straightforward, conversational way, free of wordiness or jargon. And there are several great reasons to dump it.įor starters, it sounds stuffy and old-fashioned. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly Is there any reason to use please find attached ? Is this business writing holdover necessary? These days, we’re more likely to want to call attention to attachments than items included with a mailed letter, but people still use please find attached all the time. But this interviewer pointed out just how inane and stuffy business-speak can be. I’d mimicked the business letter style I’d been taught in high school typing class, not to mention every other business letter I’d seen or received. “I love it when people write ‘Enclosed please find my résumé.’ I didn’t even know your résumé was lost!” He looked up suddenly and grinned, pointing at the letter. ![]() While I waited anxiously in an oversized leather wingback chair, he sat at his desk clicking his pen top and scanning my résumé and cover letter. There I was in the wood-paneled office of an immaculately groomed lawyer. One such mailing resulted in an interview. When I was new to the job market and mailing out résumés (although I’m dating myself, I’ll admit that this was well before the days of email), I sent my carefully crafted cover letters with a note that read: ![]()
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