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WHAT “PS” MEANS AND HOW TO USE IT CORRECTLY
Karen Hertzberg
Updated on June 21, 2023Writing Tips
In the days before email, Paul McCartney famously sang, “PS I love you” on The
Beatles’ 1963 album, Please Please Me. But what does PS mean and how do we use
it in modern communication?
PS MEANING: WHAT DOES PS MEAN IN LETTERS?
PS is an abbreviation for “post script” used for additional information at the
end of a letter or message that doesn’t relate to the main topic. For example,
you might write an email to your friend and then add a line after your signature
that reads, “PS – I’m having a party this weekend and want you to come.” PS
comes from the Latin phrase postscriptum, which means “written after.”
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In the days of handwritten and typed letters, we often found ourselves
remembering something we wanted to include only after we’d signed off. That’s
where a PS came in handy. It’s also often used for effect to add a clever or
funny afterthought. It can be added for emphasis, or even as an argumentative
“So there!” It’s a tool still used in direct and email marketing, which we’ll
talk about in a moment.
> The P.S. is the most charming part of a letter. It’s the wink you give as you
> walk away.
—Shaun Usher, author of Letters of Note, for The Wall Street Journal
HOW TO PUNCTUATE AND FORMAT PS
Should PS be capitalized? How is it abbreviated; with (P.S.) or without (PS)
periods? Should you use any trailing punctuation? Surprisingly, there are no
hard and fast answers to these questions.
The Cambridge Dictionary suggests that PS is the proper format in British
English.
PS Don’t forget to let the cat in before you go to bed.
The Cambridge Dictionary also says that P.S. (with periods after each letter) is
the American English format. Indeed, you’ll often find it abbreviated as such in
the US. But The Chicago Manual of Style favors PS, without the periods.
The verdict? Usage varies, and PS doesn’t factor into most style guides. The
safest bet is to capitalize the P and S (use periods after each letter if that’s
your preference), and leave out any trailing punctuation.
PS IN EMAIL
PS once saved us from having to edit or rewrite an entire letter just to include
an important afterthought. But email allows us to go back and edit before
sending. Technically, we could avoid the use of PS altogether in electronic
communication. But should we?
Not really. PS is still useful for effect, and it’s a great way to get a
specific point noticed. Although the Internet has made us a culture of skimmers
rather than people who read things like email word-for-word, we tend to notice
what’s at the beginning and end of a text.
Here’s a tip: People wonder—does the PS come before or after the signature?
Since a postscript is an addition that comes after a letter is completed, it
should always follow the signature.
Including a PS has long been a direct mail marketing strategy. Statistics once
showed that as many as 79 percent of people who opened a direct mail letter
would read the PS first. Although times have changed, email marketers still
swear by it as a way to reiterate a call to action, create FOMO, provide some
sort of bonus information or offer, or even share a testimonial.
EXAMPLES OF PS IN A LETTER
To demonstrate just how effective a PS can be, here are some examples from
letters written by famous and notable people.
John Lennon
We opened this article with The Beatles, so let’s return to that theme for a
moment. Here’s a letter John Lennon famously wrote to a groupie who dissed Yoko
Ono. This PS isn’t exactly an I love you.
Yoko’s been an artist before you were ever a groupie. Why don’t you open your
box and dig ‘Mind Train’ on [Yoko/Plastic Ono band album] ‘Fly’? Your prejudices
can’t be that deep.
Love,
John Lennon
P.S. You might have an aging problem. Me? I wouldn’t go back one day!
Ronald Reagan
This excerpt comes from a letter Ronald Reagan penned to his son, Michael, in
1971, shortly after Michael was married.
. . . Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do
to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is
no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day
knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his
footsteps.
Love,
Dad
P.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.
Philip K. Dick
In 1973, four years before it was published, Philip K. Dick sent his agent,
Scott Meredith, an outline of his novel A Scanner Darkly. This cover letter
includes an enthusiastic PS.
Dear Scott:
Here is the outline for my proposed new novel. A SCANNER DARKLY, which I told
you about. It’s a good long outline, running well over sixty pages. I guess you
can’t sell it to any publisher until I write a bunch of sample chapters, but
anyhow this is what I’ll be working on for quite some time.
If you’d like to show it—for example to Doubleday—that would of course be fine
with me. Otherwise, hang onto this outline while I continue from my carbon.
Let me know what you think of it, and meanwhile I’ll keep you posted as to how
I’m coming with the novel itself.
Cordially,
Philip K. Dick
P.S. I swear, Scott, this is shaping up to be the greatest novel ever written.
Or at least the greatest novel I’ve ever written, anyhow.
Richard Feynman
Influential American physicist Richard Feynman (a 1965 Nobel Prize winner) lost
his wife and high school sweetheart, Arline, when she died of tuberculosis at
age 25. In October 1946, sixteen months after Arline’s death, he wrote her a
tender love letter, which remained in a sealed envelope until after his death in
1988.
. . . I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have
full happiness and don’t want to be in my way. I’ll bet you are surprised that I
don’t even have a girlfriend (except you, sweetheart) after two years. But you
can’t help it, darling, nor can I — I don’t understand it, for I have met many
girls and very nice ones and I don’t want to remain alone — but in two or three
meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.
My darling wife, I do adore you.
I love my wife. My wife is dead.
Rich.
PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don’t know your new address.
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