How should one address a person or a group of people, for example, in a email conversation at the start of a sentence?
- Please somebody do something very simple if some simple condition.
- Somebody please do something very simple if some simple condition
For example, something like "Please managers forward this request to your people if you believe they could give helpful feedback." Or "Managers please feel free to forward this request to your people if you believe they could give helpful feedback."
What would be correct if both are incorrect?
Should any punctuation marks be applied?
Best Answer
While it's grammatically correct to use an explicit subject with the imperative mood (e.g. "Somebody help!", "Nobody move!", "Don't everybody talk at once!", "Don't you dare go in there!"), it's somewhat informal, not very common in professional writing. In professional writing, the best solution is to write:
with a comma after "managers". Here the word "managers" indicates who the sentence is addressed to (compare "Hi, <person's name>, how are you?"), but the bulk of the sentence uses an implicit "you" (as is normal in the imperative mood).