How I love punctuation. Our meticulous use of commas, em-dashes, semi-colons, and question marks are crucial to develop the perfect tone and style for our careful writing.
Then we ruin it by finishing with a slew of gaudy exclamation marks.
If the point is strong, it will make an impact without the assistance of this impatient and demanding symbol. The presence of a symbol with such greed and voracity actually degrades the point and deems our writing, (and, heaven forbid, our brand), unprofessional.
This morning, my dear partner sent me this link. This brilliant site helps describe all the ways in which this language-cheapening mark aggravates the best of writers.
http://menwithpens.ca/no-exclamation-points
So, let's do our copy editors a favour, and save the exclamation marks for greeting cards.
Crowdsourcing Christmas - Day Seven
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The narrowing down begins! This is where the potential for marital discord
can threaten the very possibility of the trip happening.
Not true. We're not fig...
12 years ago
I agree!
ReplyDeleteNo really, I do. So what's better an emoticon or an exclamation mark?
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ReplyDeleteI find it sends the same shrill tone as an email composed with all capital letters. Far too forceful. Almost offensive to the recipient.
ReplyDelete