Public Service Announcement

Great announcement!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!?!?!

It isn't like we're chopping down trees here!!!!!!!

I never use !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But . . . but . . . . . .

caw

Noooo, not the exclamation marks!!1!!one!!!eleven!!!11!!!1

I wnt to know what happened to the "Interabang", a proposed punctuation mark that includes "?" and "!" in one mark?

It seems to still live:
You can find an interrobang in Microsoft Word's Fonts. Go to Format, choose Fonts, then Wingdings 2. You'll find 4 different versions of the interrobang. Hit the ` ~ key, the ] } key, the 6 ^ key, or the - _ key.

‽ > !!

Nerd humor. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Sassee said:

Noooo, not the exclamation marks!!1!!one!!!eleven!!!11!!!1

Click to expand...

I was going to write this- except use "eleventy" LOL

I agree the usage of exclamations has reached the point of absurdity. I think the problem is the overuse in regular conversation. The ! has become so commonplace in emails and blogs and on the web, it appears to many as not being enough emphasis. When they really REALLY really mean it, they feel they should use more than one. When they only really mean it, just two suffice.

When they're asking about the price of tea in China, one does the trick.

That's my guess, anyway. I was taught to use one and only one. And only use it when necessary.

It's sort of like the use of ...
So many people do ....................................
LOL three is enough!

Now I'm gonna be on the lookout for all of those things as I go about my day.
Thanks, Mridu

Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff started it all. I haven't seen that many exclamation points since the sixth grade oath of secrecy attached to Judy Blume's Forever!!!!

Typically in the online gaming community, an excessive amount of ! or ? is usually done for humorous effect. It portrays exaggeration (sometimes sarcasm) in a place where we can't use italics or underline. Which then leaks over into real world applications, unfortunately.

I think it's fine in any informal setting. But when I do formal writing I will stick with the standards:

?
and
!
and
. . .
and
. . . .




I consider this place an informal setting, so I have no problem doing:

!!!!!!!
and
???
and
....................


And I also don't give too much of a rat's posterior about my typos and misspellings here either. I will SOMETIMES give a post here "the polish" but I really don't have time for such a fuss on a message board.

My blog I will spell check. But I also will sometimes get silly with ????? and !!!! on my blog if I feel the post is already humorous or tongue-in-cheek enough.

E-mails?

Professional e-mails I spell check and use correct punctuation in. But informal e-mails I have no problem getting silly about. (And YES, I just ended two sentences in a row with prepositions! )

KitKat said:

There's global warming, the bees are dying, and... the exclamation marks are multiplying!!! (Yes, yes, I cringed.)

Writers, PLEASE, stop the madness. One exclamation mark is enough to show how frustrated/shocked/aghast you are. Two or three only make you look stupid.

Ditto for question marks. Okay??

That's all. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Okay. Take a deep breath. Breath out. All is well. All is well.

Yup, I find this interesting. The other day my husband brought home an inter-office memo. He works for a large company. Several of the emails attached to that one memo contained many people using !!!! or ??? or !!????

This was among management.

The same could be said about ending sentences with preposition, and using sentence fragments.

I certainly KNOW the rules, but I break them at my whim (and admittedly at my peril) if I feel the situation allows me (and my creativity/rebelliousness) to do so.

One exclamation point is one too many. You hear me, James Patterson?(??)

Unless you're putting them in dialogue. It's equally painful to read something like: "'You dirty ape,' the man shouted."

If only I had the slightest idea how to do it, I could get rich on my invention (which I just now thunk up in response to your post, KitKat). I'd create a keyboard that locks out consecutive exclamation points or combinations of ?!

It would be mandatory in every classroom.

Plot Device said:

The same could be said about ending sentences with preposition, and using sentence fragments.

Click to expand...

...And they're SUPPOSED to end with...?

Hm, didn't we already stop that??