[General] How to say not to be late politely?

[masako-y]

Hello! I'd like to ask you how to say not to be late for a deadline.
I need to ask my colleagues to submit a document and I don't want them to be late.

"I'd like to ask you to meet the deadline."

Is this sentence correct and natural English? Is there any other better phrase?


Thank you.

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

If I wanted to be polite while also conveying the importance of meeting this deadline, I'd say something like:
"I'd ask you all to, please, be punctual." (I'm assuming they already know there is a deadline)

Are your colleagues English or Japanese-speaking?

 

[masako-y]

Thank you for your reply, SlickVic9000! I'm going to send a notification in English to non-native English speakers by e-mail.

 

[SlickVic9000]

I was just going to say that if they're non-native speakers, I wouldn't worry too much about sounding "natural". Something simple and direct should suffice:

"Please complete the document by (insert deadline here)."

 

[masako-y]

I see. I think I'm going to say your first suggestion. By the way, is the sentence I wrote grammatically incorrect?

 

[Raymott]

Hello! I'd like to ask you how to say not to be late for a deadline.
I need to ask my colleagues to submit a document and I don't want them to be late.

"I'd like to ask you to meet the deadline."

Is this sentence correct and natural English? Is there any other better phrase?


Thank you.

I would say that it depends on who is disadvantaged by the document being late. If it's the sender, you can say something like "Late submissions cannot be considered." There's no need to be excessively polite.
If it's only you who will be disadvantaged, sometimes it's useful to be more polite, but I don't think that is the factor that's most likely to get their documents on time. You should explain why the documents have to be in at a certain time. People tend to be much more motivated if they know why they are doing something.