best word

The textbook answer is "I", but many people nowadays would use "me". "Myself" is definitely wrong, although many self important people would use it. "I am" is acceptable, but it is a phrase, not a "word".

Myself is wrong? Dang - I can't say I did anything by 'my own self' anymore?

That's local slang, Yoong Liat is talking about standard English.

Thanks, Contrex, for pointing out that "I am" is a phrase. I should have written word/s.

Best wishes (By the way, Contrex, I think in BrE, a comma is not needed after 'wishes', but in AmE, one is required. Am I correct?)

I am not sure what you are asking. Do you mean after "wishes" in the above quoted text? If so, the answer is "no" for any brand of English. If the words "Best wishes" are intended to form a sentence, then I daresay a full stop or "period" might be strictly required.

In the following sentence, a comma is standard in AmE and BrE:

Best wishes, Contrex.

Strunk and White would say that "I am" is the most preferable option in this case, though these days not everyone takes Strunk and White as seriously as they used to.

Hi Contrex

What I meant is that when I end my email, I sometimes say

Best wishes

Is a comma needed after 'wishes' above? I think in BrE, it is not needed, but in AmE, it is.

Many thanks.

Still useful and instructive today, with a few caveats for the ESOL learner, (see my bold underline comments) Later editions are likely to be more relevant.

Wikipedia says:

The Elements of Style ("Strunk & White") is an American English writing style guide. It is one of the most influential and best-known prescriptive treatments of English grammar and usage in the United States. It originally detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, "a few matters of form," and a list of commonly misused words and expressions. Updated editions of the paperback book are often required reading for American high school and college composition classes.

The book was originally written in 1918 and privately published by Cornell University professor William Strunk Jr., and was first revised with the help of Edward A. Tenny in 1935. In 1957, it came to the attention of E. B. White at The New Yorker. White had studied under Strunk in 1919 but had since forgotten the "little book," a "forty-three-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English." A few weeks later, White wrote a piece for The New Yorker lauding Professor Strunk and his devotion to "lucid" English prose. The book's author having died in 1946, Macmillan and Company commissioned White to recast a new edition of Elements of Style, published in 1959. In this revision, White independently expanded and modernized the 1918 work, creating the handbook now known to millions of writers and students as, simply, "Strunk & White". White's first edition sold some two million copies, with total sales of three editions (over a span of four decades) surpassing ten million copies.

Strunk's original version concentrates on specific questions of usage, cultivation of what he considered good writing, and avoidance of prolixities. "Make every word tell," he writes. One chapter is the simple admonition: "Omit needless words!" White updated and extended these sections, and prefixed an introductory essay adapted from his New Yorker article. He also added the concluding chapter, An Approach to Style, a broader prescriptive guide to writing in English. White updated two more editions of The Elements of Style in 1972 and 1979, when it grew to 85 pages. By the time the fourth edition of "Strunk and White" appeared in 1999, its second author had died, and the manuscript rights were acquired by Longman, who added a foreword by White's stepson, Roger Angell, an afterword by Charles Osgood, a glossary, and an index. An anonymous editor modified the text of this 1999 edition. Among the noticeable changes was the removal of White's short but spirited defense [sic][/b] of "he" for nouns embracing both genders. (See the "they" entry in Chapter IV, and also gender-specific pronouns.)

The year 2005 saw the release of The Elements of Style Illustrated, with design and illustrations by Maira Kalman. The text follows the 1999 edition.

This and much more at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style

Yes, I find Strunk & White indispensible in questions of grammar and usage, but I don't always agree with their suggestions of style. (For example, I think the passive voice can be effective in certain circumstances.)

Interestingly, it seems like the most recent edition no longer credits White. I haven't checked the Wikipedia article yet, but I wonder if he's been edited out of the new edition?

But not as indispensable as a dictionary for some things, eh?

True... no style guide will get you off the hook for typos.