Have you ever received an email like this? "Hey!!! How are you?!! I am fine! I am having a great day! I haven't seen you in so long! My car is blue! It is Monday!"You get the idea.
I can't stand overuse of exclamation points. Exclamation points are solely for things that actually deserve exclamation: "Watch out! Fire! I can't believe what Chuck wrote in his note to Blair!" They are NOT for routine declaratory sentences, such as: "I am hungry." or "We are out of milk." or "People who overuse exclamation points are obnoxious." After the second or third exclamation point in an email, they lose all impact. It is as if they disappear altogether.
Exclamation point abusers are the boys who cried wolf. One day, their overuse will come back to bite them. They will have something that really, truly deserves emphasis, and they will use an exclamation point properly. But we won't notice. We will read the sentence in a completely normal way, with no emphasis whatsoever...and there will be DISASTROUS consequences. Damn you, overusers! (Note the proper use of an exclamation point at the end of this post).
5 comments:
Uh-oh. I fear that this entry might've been inspired by one of my exclamation point-happy e-mails!
WOW! LOL! OMG! BBQ! HEY! INTERJECTION! COOL! EXCLAMATION POINT! WHOA!
Interesting that you chose to use all capitals instead of exclaimation points for emphasis. So either this will be the retreat for those who overuse exclamation points or you will need to write another article on the overuse of capitals...
"and there will be DISASTROUS consequences"
On a side note, some people really do speak in an overly dramatic way. Some people just have a lot of energy. In that case, they are misrepresenting themselves by restraining. To each his own.
Like 24-hour cable newscasters, we compensate for the unworthiness of our meanings by being emphatic! (A good rule of thumb: The more insignificant the message, the more exclamations it will require.) It's a Freudian reaction formation: I really mean it! I loved the conference! OMG did I LOVE it!!!!!!
- Jacob Rubin
Like 24-hour cable newscasters, we compensate for the unworthiness of our meanings by being emphatic! (A good rule of thumb: The more insignificant the message, the more exclamations it will require.) It's a Freudian reaction formation: I really mean it! I loved the conference! OMG did I LOVE it!!!!!!
- Jacob Rubin
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