Just One More Thing: The Power of The Postscript
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a postscript as: ‘A paragraph written at the end of a letter, after the signature, containing an afterthought or additional matter.’
The first recorded usage was in 1523 when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, advisor to King Henry VIII, announced that ‘the Kinges Grace and his Counsail’ considered their usage ‘right expedient’.
At a time when paper was scarce (and expensive), using the device avoided having to rewrite a letter if you’d forgotten to include something important. Which was, we can surmise, the thinking behind the exhortation.
The term itself comes from the Latin post scriptum (meaning ‘written after’). It’s often abbreviated to ‘PS’ or ‘P.S.’. And, if additional points need to be added after the first postscript, they’re abbreviated to ‘PPS’ (post-post-scriptum) and ‘PPPS’. In theory, ad infinitum. Though I’m sure a sense of pragmatism would prevail eventually!
Digging a little deeper
So far, so good. But the definition only scratches the surface of the power of the postscript.
Letter writers, novelists and others have used them for many years to add depth to a piece of writing. And they are a wonderful (often overlooked) way of subverting understanding, deepening meaning or capturing the reader’s attention.
As Shaun Usher, the author of Letters of Note put it, ‘The P.S. is the most charming part of a letter. It's the wink you give as you walk away.’
Let’s take a closer look at some fine examples of the postscript spotted in its natural habitat.
As a mark of guile
The 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in his essay Of Cunning: ‘I knew one, that when he wrote a Letter, he would put that which was most Materiall, in the Post-script as if it had been a By-matter.’
For Bacon, the aim was to mislead or deceive the recipient with the intention of inserting, apparently artlessly, important information to advance a probably dubious cause.
As a possibly unintended act of discourtesy to the reader
Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles II, wrote: ‘This burthening you with Postscripts is, I confess, a rude way of Writing.’
Perhaps he felt he had no choice. But you know what he meant. Overuse of postscripts – whether deliberate or not – can overwhelm the reader and suggest poor organisation of the writer’s thoughts.
As a common feature of 18th century letters
The 18th century witnessed the development of a new, more democratic culture of letter writing as literacy increased, postal services improved, and tradesmen, farmers and workers joined the quest for self-expression. Often relying on letter-writing manuals to steer them through this now popular form of communication.
Unsurprisingly, postscripts were a common device as letters became less formal. The manuals tended to discourage them. John Hill’s The Young Secretary’s Guide is a good example, only accepting limited usage in situations where the idiosyncratic style of the writer or ‘Incoherent’ nature of the letter might permit them.
But letter writers weren’t going to be patronised in this way and continued to use them as they saw fit.
As a literary device
Unsurprisingly, the eighteenth century witnessed the frequent use of postscripts in epistolary novels (novels based on a series of letters between the novel’s main characters).
They were especially common in amorous correspondence. And might be deployed by the writer to bring greater realism to a story. The classic example is Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, where Richardson used the postscript to bring the reader closer to the action. And used it to such an extent that Henry Fielding later mocked it in a savage parody Shamela.
In a fascinating article, ‘P.S.’: The Dangerous Logic of the Postscript in Eighteenth-Century Literature, Richard Terry makes the pertinent observation that: ‘Postscripts need to do something different from the main letter, or to adopt a different tone or register, to merit being postscripts at all. One way of comprehending the relation between the two elements is that postscripts can be seen as forms of reaction against the preceding letter’s status as text or discourse. The postscript exudes a greater worldliness than the main text, joining the sentiments of the letter to the imperatives and constraints of real world situations. The letter enters and touches the world through the funnel of its postscript.’
As a clarification or apology
In a letter to his publishers complaining about the printer’s poor grasp of his punctuation, Mark Twain wrote a postscript apologising for the unfinished state of a work: ‘These are not revises—they are first proofs, and bad ones at that.’
For added impact, he wrote it up the side of the letter, as people often did when they’d run out of room.
As a playful aside between friends
In a letter to his old friend E B White in 1961, the humourist James Thurber added a marvellous postscript: ‘If the United States had had you and G.B. Shaw working together, would the country have had the E.B.G.B.'s? If so, it would have been good for us.’*
What a wonderful image and lovely play on words (having the heebie-jeebies means having the jitters).
*From Neil A. Grauer’s Remember Laughter: A Life of James Thurber.
As a response to an earlier work
The word ‘postscript’ can be used to refer to a reflection on another work, even if it is not attached to that work. A good example is Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's book Concluding Unscientific Postscript.
One of his major works, the book is so named because he considered it a sequel to his earlier study Philosophical Fragments. At more than six times the length of Philosophical Fragments, this surely takes the concept of the postscript to a new level!
As a broader metaphor
Demonstrating its versatility, we also find the postscript being deployed as simile or metaphor in fiction.
In his novel The Magicians, Lev Grossman wrote: ‘Now she was gone, broken like the glass animal she’d made that first day they’d met, and the rest of his life lay in front of him like a barren, meaningless postscript.’ A poignant statement of sacrifice, loss and grief.
As an expletive
Inevitably, there’s a cruder, slang version of PS out there.
In some circles, it’s used as an abbreviation for ‘Pointless Shit’. Meaning, if it needs to be spelt out, an action or thing of no value!
Short and to the point, I think you’ll agree. Clearly, this doesn’t have anything to do with the generally understood meaning of PS. But I thought I’d better reference it to avoid any confusion…
I remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant
It’s sometimes argued that the postscript has had its day. That it’s fallen out of use as people are influenced by the compressed messaging offered by text, emails or Twitter. And fail to read either lengthy communications or anything added after the signature.
But surely that’s the point. The postscript is, by its nature, a brief message appended to a longer message. Its brevity is its saving grace. Postscripts occupy their own space. They define themselves in opposition to the text that precedes them. Whether by content, style or tone.
Long live the postscript. I certainly plan to keep on using them. I hope you do too!
PS You may be thinking it’s remiss of me, as a copywriter, not to have said anything about the use of the postscript in the marketing world. I shall remedy this omission forthwith.
These days, a postscript is often added to sales letters and marketing emails to boost engagement with the reader.
Not least, as it’s well understood that people rarely read a marketing letter or email word for word. Assuming they’ve even opened it in the first place! If they do, many simply glance at the first paragraph, then skim to the conclusion. Or even start at the end, to save time.
Adding a PS is a great way of creating a sense of urgency or fear of missing out (FOMO), capturing your reader’s attention with a striking bit of bonus information, or standing out from the crowd with a joke or funny line.
PPS So, think of it as the email equivalent of TV detective Columbo's famous catchphrase ‘Just one more thing’ before leaving the room. Which gave him the opportunity to spring a killer question on a now cornered suspect.
PPPS There's a wonderful French expression, ‘l’esprit de l’escalier’ ('the wit of the staircase'). It describes that brilliant remark you think of after the conversation's over and you're on your way down the staircase and out of the building.
I don’t know about you, but I’m afflicted by this syndrome more often than I care to admit when sending emails. It’s something about that pressure to hit the send button.
No probs. Simply send an immediate follow-up email, presented as a postscript. Intriguingly, there’s something about the psychology of receiving a message of this type that seems to encourage people to read it. Job done!
Image: Peter Falk and Richard Kiley in Columbo, “A Friend In Deed”, 1974. NBC Television via Wikimedia Commons