This is fast becoming one of my pet peeves: people who use exclamation marks with every phrase. Maybe it’s just my prejudice but it seems very bad style and unprofessional. I just got this email:
This guy is the vice president for sales and he writes worse than a teenager. I feel like replying:
I know a couple of other people who do this and it looks awful to me. And one is a lawyer, no less.
Orbifold, exclamation marks should be used only when strictly needed and only one. Anything else looks totally unprofessional. Look at the message:
>> Thanks for order I will advise when we can ship them!!
First of all there’s a period missing and the exclamation marks are totally superfluous. Or is he surprised that he gets an order?
>> Do they have a forecast!
That should be a question mark.
>> What is their August demand look like?
What kind of grammar is that? Appalling.
>> Can we get more visibility!
Again, it should be a question mark but, furthermore, I have no idea what the guy means.
Exclamation marks should be used only and strictly to denote surprise and only in ones. I have a lawyer friend who finishes every sentence with several exclamation marks and it denotes him as the hick that he is.
As much as I try not to be a spelling and grammar nitpicker, when I receive e-mails which resemble your example in that they are complete nonsense, I have been known to respond with:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Your recent e-mail message (quoted below) appears to have been mistranslated from it’s original language. English is the only language spoken here, and as such we are unable to discern the intended content. Please make another attempt at translation. We look forward to your business.
I am constantly surprised by the people in my company who cannont compose a professional written communication. Do they think that because it’s e-mail it’s ok to be so informal? Or do they just not actually understand when you’re supposed to use a comma or exclamation point or whatever?
We have someone here who bolds, underlines and CAPITALIZES numerous words in every sentence. It’s as if she doesn’t understand that by using those tools so often, she is actually detracting from the impact she is trying to make. And where’s the italics? It’s like bold, underline and capitals all make it seem important enough but the italics don’t.
I always want to write back to her “When you bold, underline and capitalize EVERYTHING it just makes you look STUPID and I WISH you would STOP!” Morons. All of them.
A colleague once received the following message in response to an advertisement for an EDITORIAL job:
Oh yes, your editorial and communication skills are so fantastic that I’m going to go along with your making me ASK you to send me your resume, instead of just including it with the original e-mail . . .
I can’t decide if I’d want to see that resume or not. Would I laugh or cry?
You’re tough Fuji.
As much as I might like to do that, it would get me in trouble.
In answer to the OP: It really does make one wonder.
Are these folks that excitable? They must be absolutely thrilled to say something like, “See you tomorrow!!!”, or whatever.
I’m not even being a smart ass, but WHY? Why do you do that? There is no need for the …, it’s actual written communication. We can imagine while reading your e-mail or posts where you would be pausing in conversation. There is no need for elipses to indicate it. On behalf of people who get e-mails from you that are typed full of …'s, STOP IT. Please. It’s harder to read then leetspeek for me.
There is a “guy” in my “office” who is an excessive emphasizer! “Unfortunately,” he is responsible for “sending” me information to be “posted” on a website! His “worst” offense is overuse of quotation marks!
I deal with him by taking everything he sends me and stripping out every single bold, underline, and italic code and removing all exclamation points and quotation marks. So far he hasn’t complained that his prose has been cleaned up for human consumption. The funny thing is that I only need to read about three sentences into a document to know that “he” wrote it.