Ok, maybe not dead, but I think its usage is completely intertwined with an antiquated sense and the capitalized, bolded, or italicized word (or phrase/sentence) has taken over.
Here are my reasons why grammar needs to change to reflect its demise:
**1) **An exclamation point makes the whole sentence emphatic and lacks precision of the meaning that could be conveyed by the capitalized word.
**2) **The exclamation point is post-indicative. If there’s a long sentence that requires that punctuation, the reader won’t see this until the end and then have to possibly re-evaluate the intent behind the sentence.
**3) **It lacks the punch it once had and seems awkward. There’s a weird desperate sense of attention that the exclamation point conveys. Here’s an article that briefly explains why it should be discontinued in content marketing.
Then there was a presidential campaign when registering the exclamation point for a trademark and just abandoned it.
4) It’s a bit antiquated. If I’m reading a book and it has frequent exclamation points, especially in a non-verbalized sentence, I’m going to check the publication date. Moreover, Gordon Lightfoot’s song “If You Could Read My Mind” has an exclamation point in it. Enough said.
**5) **It’s not completely dead. Not including the expanded interrobang, there is one acceptable usage: the very short sentence. This would include:
Happy Birthday!
Yay!
Have a safe trip!
If the exclamation point was removed and it was capitalized or italicized, the meaning could be lost. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” without an exclamation point lends a sarcastic undertone to it.
Meh. The exclamation point works perfectly well. In my opinion the only problem it has is overuse.
A long sentence like your example can’t be emphatic as a unit of read text anyway, so basically you’re saying that hammers are dead because screws exist.
My general rule is writing fiction is only to use an exclamation point if it’s followed by a (closed) quotation mark.* Using it any other way never works.
I’m puzzled why nobody but me follows this intuitive rule for multiple exclamation points and question marks: for each successive sentence with that punctuation, one more must be added.
Is that true? Really?? You’re not kidding me???
Yes! It’s the greatest!! Now you all understand!!!
Agreed. (Agreed!) Exclamations work okay in dialogue, but should never be used in narrative.
And in informal messages, like we’re engaged in here (!) it’s okay to use quick-and-dirty emphatic tools to punch-up the text. Raw text is traditionally “soulless,” and tends to come across more dry and more harsh than the equivalent spoken word. Softening this with dialect (f’sure!) and other techniques is valid, in proper context.
Writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper? No…*
In an email to your old college roomie in Cincinnati, sure!
I use ellipses as a kind of anti-exclamation point, to soften the tone of a passage. Piano, vs. Forte.
to punch-up the text. Raw text is traditionally “soulless,” and tends to come across more dry and more harsh than the equivalent spoken word. Softening this with dialect (f’sure!) and other techniques is valid, in proper context.