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This, from the Guardian, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Apparently use of the exclamation point is making a major comeback, largely because of the rise of the computer and e-mail. One study noted that women are far more likely to use them (!) than men.
There are some great quotations sprinkled through the article. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald said: "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." Elmore Leonard said: "You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose."
The best quip was about Victor Hugo. Back when telegrams were the e-mail of the day, and words cost money, Hugo inquired of his publisher about how his latest book was doing. His telegram, in his entirety, was: ? His publisher's reply was: !
The thesis of the piece, such as it is, is that e-mail is inherently dull, so the exclamation points spice them up. Another thing I did not know was that most typewriters before 1970 or so didn't have them. (I'm pretty sure the one I lugged off to college in 1969 had the key, though.) You had to use a period, back up, and retype an apostrophe. That's a lot of work.
There are some great quotations sprinkled through the article. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald said: "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." Elmore Leonard said: "You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose."
The best quip was about Victor Hugo. Back when telegrams were the e-mail of the day, and words cost money, Hugo inquired of his publisher about how his latest book was doing. His telegram, in his entirety, was: ? His publisher's reply was: !
The thesis of the piece, such as it is, is that e-mail is inherently dull, so the exclamation points spice them up. Another thing I did not know was that most typewriters before 1970 or so didn't have them. (I'm pretty sure the one I lugged off to college in 1969 had the key, though.) You had to use a period, back up, and retype an apostrophe. That's a lot of work.
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