!?! should be banned. It’s horrible.
We have a buyer in my department who does the exclamation point thing. At first I thought he was being an ass, and got angry that he would be addressing me as if shouting. But then I realized he was only an idiot.
We have a supply nurse who thinks that all CAPS means important. I run her e-mails through MS Word’s Capitalization filter to render her e-mails readable.
My headaches have decreased as a result.
I’m one who uses too many quotation marks. Sorry. I’ll try to cut down on that.
there are also people who do not capitalize. i cannot understand how someone wrote their resume and got hired without knowing how to use the shift key.
You are neglecting people who send work emails in colored, frivolous, oversize fonts with animated icons or embedded pictures that are HUGE. Particularly those who switch colors for various words. Now that doesn’t make me treat your words more seriously; that makes me think you have far far too much time on your hands. Not to mention that you have no respect for the workers who are checking email from home on dial-up.
Ooooo today’s treat is red bold italics in Andy, size 28!
Perhaps a rule of thumb would be to you punctuation to represent the way you would say it.
. = Say in normal voice.
? = Say with slight lift on last word, ie. questioning.
! = Shouted, or rising inflection.
!? or ?! = Shouted question.
?? = Incredulity.
!?? = Pretty meaningless, incredulity is already emphatic.
!!? = Technically questioning, but not incredulous, but emphatic.
Obviously only the first three should be used in formal writing.
In informal writing, it does make sense to italicize or bold a word needed to be emphasised.
But, for the love of God, is anything amazing enough to need 5 '!'s?!
One per page.
Use it well.
THREE? More than one is excessive, and you should pause and think before typing even one.
Why hasn’t Interrobang?! commented here yet?
There’s a capitalization filter? Oh, please direct me to it. I need it for my beloved cousin’s emails. She’s sent me emails for about five years now and still uses all caps.
Ava
There are two people here at the office (one is a directory) who do that. It makes me nuts. I’m not sure which one makes me more crazy, the over use of the elipses, or the act of putting too many elipses in.
Heh. This reminds me of my high school English teacher. He said that we all get three exclamation points to use. Ever. And he suggested we wait until we were out of college before we use the first one.
avabeth, it’s Format, Change Case.
As for everything else complained about in this thread, I am guilty as charged, except I only them when corresponding with whom I alread have a friendly and familiar relationship.
Looks like I either need a new keyboard or new fingers.
It’s a pet peeve of mine as well, but I’ve found that the occasional exclamation point in an email (even in business) can convey friendly informality (in addition to it’s intended punctuation) that is usually well received. Smilies are an absolute no-no, as are multiple exclamation points, but I’ve been trying to get used to the occasional ‘!’
Gracias - that will come in handy.
I’m guilty of the … sometimes. I’ve gotten better, but when I first began posting on Usenet, I used them a lot. Never in professional letters or emails, though. And I have been guilty of using a pretty background in my emails - but a photo and nearly everyone seems to like it.
Ava
There should never, for any reason, be more than one punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.
Exclamation points should only be used to express strong feeling. Business shipments do not arouse strong feelings. Therefore, unless the shipment is James Marsters, naked, tied up with red ribbons, there is no excuse for using any exclamation points in communications regarding the shipment of packages.
“Maybe I don’t use my exclamation points as haphazardly as you do.”
- Jake, to Elaine, in “The Sniffing Accountant”
Is this an option? Where do I go for the “Naked James Marsters shipment”? Is there a website I can order him from? 
Ava
Ask yourself two questions:
-
Am I quoting someone (were these words originally spoken or written by someone else)?
-
Am I referencing the title of a short work (chapter, essay, magazine article, etc.)?
If you cannot answer yes to one of these two questions, you should not be using quotation marks.
Since I’ve had to deal with the mad quotation mark user, I’ve become much more aware of their correct (and incorrect) use.