I say a maximum of one per e-mail/post/letter.
What do you think? Do you lose respect for people who end every sentence with one?
Excessive exclamation points are a pet peeve of mine, and while it probably sounds snobbish to say so, yes, I tend to doubt the communication skills of someone who uses more than one or two. I also have a (possibly irrational) prejudice against ?!?!?!? I will admit that I’ve used it informally when the situation dictated, but never more than “What?!” What really drives me nuts is !? For some reason, that just seems even more egregiously wrong.
I can’t help it. I’m crazy.
You’re not crazy.
People who end every sentence with an exclamation point make me feel very, very tired – like cheerleaders whose pep meter is permanently stuck on the perky setting. It makes me even more tired if they write everything in itsy bitsy font and space . . . everything with . . . . many . . . many ellipses. No capitals are also a minus. You end up with paragraphs like this:
so…i Have this dilemna onn my hands . . … my mum wans me to decide (sp???) someting forher . . . she has thees flaingoes she wants to putt in the fron tyard . . . . (theyre so tacky!!!11!) . . . i needto chuse which she puts out there . . . its actually kinda funy cuz my grnama always had plawstic flaingoes in her font yard and now mum wants the same thing and she always said that she hater her and never wanted to be like ther, but npw she’s turning into her mum and i hope thta doesn’t mean thayt im’ going to be like her when igorow up becaus eshe has relly bad fashun senes and i really liek to wear black and pink with fishnets cuz that’s really punk and my mumis so not punk . . … so . . . i just dont’ noe!. . . . . . should i use the concreet flamingoe or the platic 1?!. . . … … it’s just not fari!..my mum is dum!!!11!!!
ps sorry this isn’t about the topic of this commuty. youg uyz are just reall smrt and you always have such smart things to sa thtat i thought id try asking you instead of doing anything sensble. thx!!!
Things like that drive me nuts. It makes me violent. Makes me want to spit. It’s even more boggling when the person who writes it has some actually command of the English language, and everything is is correctly spelled and punctuated, except for the exclamation points and the ellipses. An exclamation point doesn’t necessarily make what you’re saying or writing more important. (It was also surprisingly painful to write. My apologies for trying to read it.)
In my own writing, I try to allow the choice of words and character building to allow the reader to determine how vehemently something is said. Exclamation points are lazy writing when it comes to fiction. In more informal settings, then a few can creep in, but no more than one per posting/paragraph. If you find yourself repeatedly using exclamation points, you should probably step back your caffeine usage and step away from your computer. Enthusiasm is good, but too much is just kind of overwhelming. I mean, nobody really gets that excited over garbanzo beans or whatever the topic of the thread is.
One is fine. More than two gets a bit much – it’s like the author of the missive is on drugs or something. Or is just really, really excited.
Exclamation marks, tho’, aren’t my bugbear. Things like lose vs. loose gets more of a sigh.
Exactly - I can tolerate it a lot more easily in the context of something like your sample, but it’s when it’s written by someone who seems like they’d know better that it really starts to get to me.
As many as possible!!! Some of them should also be ones!!!111!!!1 Bonus points (!!!) if you don’t exclude them to the end of your sentences!!!111one!!!111
From writing fiction, my rule about exclamation points is simple: no exclamation point unless immediately followed by a quotation mark.
OK, you can continue on with the quote, but you get the idea. Never use exclamation points to make things seem important. It’s like laughing at your own jokes, then saying, “It’s a joke, son.” The readers should know it’s important or astounding without the exclamation point to tell them.
“What sort of person,” said Salzella patiently, “sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man.”
–Terry Pratchett, Maskerade
One for me, please. LEIKOMGLOLERSKATZ!!111!!1eleven! is only done for exaggeration.
One per page/e-mail/post/letter/document. I don’t mind a few more in a casual letter, provided the rest of the e-mail is coherent, but in a professional letter I have trouble even with one.
Depends on how many words/pages the document has and what it’s trying to convey.
I’m quite sure most of my favourite novels include more than one exclamation mark.
The only time when I consider it correct to have two exclamation marks or two question marks is if you’re writing in Spanish, and in that case the one at the start goes upside-down. More than two, what Terry said.
The late, great Lester Bangs once wrote a music review in which every sentence ended with an exclamation point. It was hilarious to me, for some reason. If I remember correctly, he was writing in character, a young excitable music fan. I’m going to go home and find it in my copy of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung.
I figure most folks will need about ten in their lifetime. No point in wasting them on multiples.
Amen to that. One of the things I do to help me decide whether a novel is worth the money or is glurge is to flip through it looking for just this.
When I see “Nick Carter was not fooled! He immediately pulled out his weapon and blasted the miscreant!” I just put it back on the rack.
Exceptions apply as you mentioned, when there is dialogue with exclamation points, as long as it is appropriate to the character.
Novelist Elmore Leonard says if he finds more than one “said” or more than one exclamation point in a page, he’ll rewrite. I mostly agree. If I can’t express surprise, outrage, or anger without an exclamation point, I’m dragging my feet.
I way overuse them in email to students, because I worry about not sounding friendly enough.
I probably end up just looking like I’ve had too! much! coffee!
I mean, yea, they had a fairly decent NY disco rock sound going, but whatever the hell happened to them? That movement, as well - only The Liars seemed to gain much lasting fame out of it. We love you, wherever you are, !!!
I agree with the above. Overused exclamation points are so annoying!!!THIRTYONEINBASETWO!!11!
There was review of a Robert Ludlum book in The Wall Street Journal circa 15 years ago. I’ve forgotten the reviewer, but I understand he went on t do reviews for Spy magazine for a while. I dearly ish Icould remember his name, because he deserved to b remembered.
His Ludlum review was the funniest book review I’ve ever read. One part dealt with Mr. Ludlum’s abuse of exclamation points. It went somethin like this:
“Ludlum uses 35 excamation points on page 50. He uses 42 exclamation points on page 61. But that just sets you up for the whopping 75 exclamation points he uses on page 113. They look like this: !!!”
…
I’m an offender, I think.
I don’t use them to end every sentence, so it’s not the peppy cheerleader thing I’m guilty of, it’s the multiple exclamation points.
things like:
I just burned down the kitchen!!! my parents are going to be so mad!!!
I also make certain words ALL CAPS to emphasize them. I definitely overuse that.
I overuse ellipses when I’m tired, upset, or just thinking and sort of stream-of-consciousness writing. I try to go back and fix those, though. Especially because stream-of-consciousness writing for me ends up being REALLY long-winded.
The other one I overuse terribly is parentheses. I know it annoys some people, and I’m working on it, but it’s proven to be the most difficult one for me to get rid of.