Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Exclamation Mark’s Excited Return

This week I cheat—I direct your attention to a nice little article about the emotional impact of punctuation. The author, Stuart Jeffries, doesn’t bill it as such, but that’s what he’s really getting at. He’s talking about the recent ubiquity of the exclamation mark, which he notes has been prompted vaguely but I think definitely by email communications. Jeffries weighs in on the debate as to whether it’s a sign of excitability or friendliness and explores his own feelings about the mark.

My thoughts on the exclamation mark are that:

• it shouldn’t be banned the way purists have commanded it be in the past
• it shouldn’t be overused in business communications
• it’s nice to see in emails sometimes—it can impart a friendly tone
• when it’s not used well (e.g., to camouflage insincerity or even petty negativity) it’s REALLY annoying (just like ALL CAPS are)—smiley faces are like this, too
• if it’s sprinkled all through your writing, you can come off as silly or insubstantial

But overall, I like the comeback of the exclamation mark (in small doses), and I agree with Jeffries that it really was “the funless and fastidious” who were keeping it trodden underfoot. That said, one will do: it’s a powerful mark, and there’s no need to triple the action unless you’re purposefully being goofy with good friends.