blonde poker forum

What is it all of a sudden with exclamation marks?

Exclamation marks are fine, but appending one to every other bloody sentence is the NUT WORST THING ON THE ENTIRE WORLD.

And I've developed an over-reaction to them now, which is ridiculous, but when I see them improperly used - especially in Corporate blurb & spam - my head explodes with fury & anger.

Look, here's a few hints.

http://www.thesaleslion.com/exclamation-point-dead-content-marketing/


Or this.....


Why does the exclamation mark have such a bad reputation? When is it acceptable to use it?


F. Scott Fitzgerald may have summed up its drawback most succinctly in his admonishment: “An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke." And who wants to be that sort of writer?

The exclamation mark is often the lazy writer's way of conveying emotion. By using it, you're telling the reader how to interpret the line. “Pay attention," you say to the reader, “this is going to be exciting." Instead of relying on this rascal of punctuation, you should choose your words precisely so that they carry the emphasis themselves. Focus on using vivid and striking nouns and verbs that capture the essence of the strong emotion you want to convey.

Instead of this:

The man came right at him, ready to strike!

You might write this:

The man lunged, his right arm cocked, hand fisted.

The urgency of the moment comes through the image of the man about ready to strike, and the energy of the verbs: lunged, cocked, and fisted. And that approach does a more convincing job than the slim exclamation mark.

Of course, exclamation marks aren't—and shouldn't—be obsolete. Writers can use them to create a specific impact. For example, Thom Jones used exclamation marks in his short story “I Want to Live!" to mirror the rush and abrupt shifts that come with direct thought. The story is told from the perspective of a woman dying of cancer. This passage comes after a chemotherapy treatment:

The third treatment—oh, damn! The whole scenario had been underplayed. Those movie stars who got it and wrote books about it were stoics, valiant warriors compared to her. She had no idea anything could be so horrible. Starving in Bangladesh? No problem, I'll trade. Here's my MasterCard and the keys to the Buick—I'll pull a rickshaw, anything! Anything but this. HIV-positive? Why just sign right here on the dotted line and you've got a deal! I'll trade with anybody! Anybody.

While you might not need to limit yourself to the ration of three exclamation marks in a lifetime that editor and writer William Maxwell advised, you should use them sparingly and with good reason.


Or this....

https://messageandmuse.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/why-exclamation-marks-are-not-your-friend/

I do it too much and it does my own head in, only do it in here though.

Not sure why!!

i'm writing, and i am not sure you are reading and i am trying to convince you and get you to notice, so i will use an exclamation point as it makes my point more firmly to me, and therefore to you

it makes me feel better

iisnt that the thought process of the excessive exclamationers?

Not convinced yet?

They are bad for your health. (And mine). Fact.

http://www.clarityinwords.com/blog/2015/5/25/why-overindulging-in-the-exclamation-mark-is-bad-for-your-writings-health


http://www.tomthumb.org/exclamationmarks.shtml

http://menwithpens.ca/no-exclamation-points/


http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Stop_the_madness_Rules_for_using_the_exclamation_p_13882.aspx


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CF0QFjAJahUKEwjLtZ7b1vjHAhWF7BQKHeSPBSA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F2951656%2Fexclamation-point-guide%2F&usg=AFQjCNG45ylUl2DGEnOGUVcS4HetIxHe8Q&sig2=NUBuPP3S4NjtilRWudjPVQ



http://time.com/2951656/exclamation-point-guide/

...which includes......


As one writerly friend wrote to me about a decade ago, “Almost all uses of exclamation points, other than in reported speech, should be punished by death, administered with broadsword

Forum thread titles that include an exclamation mark should all be banned. Do not read them. Ever. 

A chap who often writes to me sticks one at the end of every sentence.

hello tikay!

Got a question for you!

This happened last night!

What do you think?!

I have a PM on blonde that runs to 3 paragraphs, & 7 sentences. It includes 23 exclamation marks.

23.                                   

But it gets worse.

Have you seen those multi-exclamation marks? Nothing - nothing - is worse. I'm not blind, I sew the first one.

Look at this bad beat!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations tikay, you have earned rakeback of £1.73 this week


Oh great, thank you.

I might play as many as 50 SNG's in an evening, & in doing so win, say, 1,000 hands.

Do I really need, after every hand - "congratulations, you have won the hand!"


1,000 times per night, an average of 5 nights per week, for about 40 weeks of the year. That's 200,00 of the buggers.  

sorry!

Stop it, you know it irritates me to death.

But, (Serious question) what if I actually exclaim? For example,


Gosh!

That is fine, nothing wrong with that.

Though you might argue that the word "gosh", in itself, effectively includes a built in exclamation mark. It's that sort of word. "Gosh" means excitement, so does not need reinforcement. 

They have a use, a good use, nothing wrong with them. It's their misuse which mildly irritates me. And the entire bloody world, & probably the universe, too.

Punctuation fascinates me. I have spent years trying to find answers to some of my punctuation questions,

I've been thinking about this and I don't agree.

By your logic the end of a paragraph doesn't need a period because it's obvious that it's ended. Words like don't do not need an apostrophe for the same reason.

That's not a valid analogy Tom, IMO.

Some words have an inbuilt exclamation mark. "wow", "gosh", "fantastic". No need to reinforce such words.

That's not the point though. It's excessive and multi exclamation marks that are bad, and cheapen the piece.

Nobe of the promos for Sky Sports, for example ( who are extremely successful) ever include an exclamation mark. Ditto, iirc, Vodafone, or Apple. Doubt you will ever see one in "The Times", either, except in direct quotes.

You lost me at this point:  A self confessed nit, playing DYMs, winning 20 hands per SNG, you sure ;)(had to REALLY resist putting n apostrophe at the end too)

For any matters concerning the English language, Fowler is the Delia Smith. This extract is from 'The King's English', 2nd Ed., 1908.

His references are, sadly but inevitably, dated (one absurdly so), but the principles are as good as they ever were...

10. The exclamation mark when there is no exclamation.

My friend! this conduct amazes me!—B.

We must differ altogether from Beadnell's rule that 'This point is used to denote any sudden emotion of the mind, whether of joy, grief, surprise, fear, or any other sensation'—at least as it is exemplified in his first instance, given above. The exclamation mark after friend is justifiable, not the other. The stop should be used, with one exception, only after real exclamations. Real exclamations include (1) the words recognized as interjections, as alas, (2) fragmentary expressions that are not complete sentences, as My friend in the example, and (3) complete statements that contain an exclamatory word, as:

What a piece of work is man!—B.

The exception mentioned above is this: when the writer wishes to express his own incredulity or other feeling about what is not his own statement, but practically a quotation from some one else, he is at liberty to do it with a mark of exclamation; in the following example, the epitaph-writer expresses either his wonder or his incredulity about what Fame says.

Entomb'd within this vault a lawyer lies
Who, Fame assureth us, was just and wise!—B.

The exclamation mark is a neat and concise sneer at the legal profession.

Outside these narrow limits the exclamation mark must not be used. We shall quote a very instructive saying of Landor's: 'I read warily; and whenever I find the writings of a lady, the first thing I do is to cast my eye along her pages, to see whether I am likely to be annoyed by the traps and spring-guns of interjections; and if I happen to espy them I do not leap the paling'. To this we add that when the exclamation mark is used after mere statements it deserves the name, by which it is sometimes called, mark of admiration; we feel that the writer is indeed lost in admiration of his own wit or impressiveness. But this use is mainly confined to lower-class authors; when a grave historian stoops to it, he gives us quite a different sort of shock from what he designed.

The unfortunate commander was in the situation of some bold, high-mettled cavalier, rushing to battle on a warhorse whose tottering joints threaten to give way at every step, and leave his rider to the mercy of his enemies!—Prescott.

The road now struck into the heart of a mountain region, where woods, precipices, and ravines were mingled together in a sort of chaotic confusion, with here and there a green and sheltered valley, glittering like an island of verdure amidst the wild breakers of a troubled ocean!—Prescott



In essence,  use them sparingly, for proper effect and not to laugh at your own jokes.

Good stuff. I was wound up like a coiled spring after watching the You Tube interview featuring Ms Proudman, but this has calmed me down a treat.

You'll enjoy the wiki page of the historian mentioned, William H Prescott, Tikay. 

Dear exclamation explainers,


Is the exclamation mark after the word 'Wait' in the example below OK? I think it might be, because wait is a word that doesn't automatically portray itself as an exclamation.


http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=66024.msg2083816#msg2083816

It is not terrible, it is the excessive use & multi-use that is bad.

You could simply re-phrase the sentence to -

Wait - I've just found out that you can still buy it.

Or replace "wait" with a whole variety of words that do the job of the exclamation mark - "gosh", "oh my" , "well well well, now there's a thing".


I'm the wrong person to ask really, I suffer from obsessive exclamanationmarkism. They'd all be sent back from where they came if I had my way.

Wait would fall under category 1 in the extract I posted above. It is also important to note the word has taken the imperative mood, which often is followed (though not always) by an exclamation mark, particularly when it's a one word sentence and has a clear message of urgent action being required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

Appropriate use IMO.

Quite so.

Thank you.

This is quite helpful.......


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark

This is good for puncuation in general
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150902-the-mysterious-origins-of-punctuation

FYP.