James B. DeMonte, a good friend of mine, has a story titled "Communion" published here:
http://www.blotterrag.com/2009-11.pdf
Read it. My favorite thing about this pub--other than his story--is that the cover reminds me of when James and I had a poetry class together. He would write comments on my poems in crayon and illustrate them much like the cover of this. Ahhh. Memories!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Let me exclaim something
Last week I spearheaded a boycott on the semicolon, and I got a good response from people who are prepared for the fight. The public is mobilized. They not only want to abolish the semicolon, but also the exclamation mark. I deliberated whether we should get involved in a two fronted war on unnecessary punctuation, but I'm convinced that the exclamation point is a significant threat to effective communication. A preemptive strike is in order. Perhaps we will need more troops.
The exclamation mark didn't show up on typewriters until the 70s, which was also the peak of the hippie culture. This is exactly what we need to enhance the emotion in a sentence: punctuation born from some hippie's acid flashback. Before that writers used an apostrophe over a period. That means the exclamation mark is no more than an upside down semicolon in disguise.
You'll typically find the exclamation mark after an interjection, a command, an exclamation, an ejaculation, or a statement expressing astonishment. Yeah. Do you think anyone has ever looked at a piece of writing and thought, "what this needs is more ejaculations." I don't think so.
The Spanish language puts an inverted exclamation mark before the sentence. Does a mark before the sentence make it premature? I'm just sayin... not only is the exclamation mark inappropriate, but in Spanish it's a selfish lover.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald said that "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." In other words, it's the Jimmy Fallon of punctuation.
But, without exclamation marks, how will readers know that I am excited/angry?
The exclamation mark is another example of a piece of punctuation that doesn't do anything other than what a period can do. The language you choose will do that for you. Let the words do the work. Some words work better than others. For example, can you even picture someone saying the following calmly?
I just slammed my finger in the f***ing car door.
I won the lottery.
Hey a**hole, the speed limit is 55, not 25.
The abomination known as the exclamation mark is becoming more prevalent in the internet community. Often the mark will be used several times after a sentence or fragment to convey excitement. Sometimes three or more times. Sometimes the numeral 1 will be placed on top of the pile of points to convey the sense that the typist is so excited they didn't even hit the shift key--e.g. Yippee!!!111. The numeral 1 has become a lazy exclamation mark.
Users, are you really that excited that you can't continue to hold down the shift key that you were already holding when you typed the first three exclamation marks? What are you doing with your pinky that keeps you from holding the shift key? Do you not realize that "Yippee!!!111" is five keystrokes more than "Yippee." I doubt that people are going to miss the point if you simply write "Yippee."
The reason I led the charge against the semicolon is because it is used as a way to separate people. In a way, the exclamation mark is doing the same thing. It's not making sentences stand out, it's making the writer stand out, but in a bad way.
Sorry, exclamation mark, this is personal. I just can't take you seriously. You do not convey anger or excitement. You say, look at me! I am whimsical like a drug induced hallucination and attention-starved like an MTV reality show star! You are a signal that the writer doesn't trust the reader. You are a period with a hi-top fade, this is not the 80s, and you need a haircut.
The exclamation mark didn't show up on typewriters until the 70s, which was also the peak of the hippie culture. This is exactly what we need to enhance the emotion in a sentence: punctuation born from some hippie's acid flashback. Before that writers used an apostrophe over a period. That means the exclamation mark is no more than an upside down semicolon in disguise.
You'll typically find the exclamation mark after an interjection, a command, an exclamation, an ejaculation, or a statement expressing astonishment. Yeah. Do you think anyone has ever looked at a piece of writing and thought, "what this needs is more ejaculations." I don't think so.
The Spanish language puts an inverted exclamation mark before the sentence. Does a mark before the sentence make it premature? I'm just sayin... not only is the exclamation mark inappropriate, but in Spanish it's a selfish lover.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald said that "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." In other words, it's the Jimmy Fallon of punctuation.
But, without exclamation marks, how will readers know that I am excited/angry?
The exclamation mark is another example of a piece of punctuation that doesn't do anything other than what a period can do. The language you choose will do that for you. Let the words do the work. Some words work better than others. For example, can you even picture someone saying the following calmly?
I just slammed my finger in the f***ing car door.
I won the lottery.
Hey a**hole, the speed limit is 55, not 25.
The abomination known as the exclamation mark is becoming more prevalent in the internet community. Often the mark will be used several times after a sentence or fragment to convey excitement. Sometimes three or more times. Sometimes the numeral 1 will be placed on top of the pile of points to convey the sense that the typist is so excited they didn't even hit the shift key--e.g. Yippee!!!111. The numeral 1 has become a lazy exclamation mark.
Users, are you really that excited that you can't continue to hold down the shift key that you were already holding when you typed the first three exclamation marks? What are you doing with your pinky that keeps you from holding the shift key? Do you not realize that "Yippee!!!111" is five keystrokes more than "Yippee." I doubt that people are going to miss the point if you simply write "Yippee."
The reason I led the charge against the semicolon is because it is used as a way to separate people. In a way, the exclamation mark is doing the same thing. It's not making sentences stand out, it's making the writer stand out, but in a bad way.
Sorry, exclamation mark, this is personal. I just can't take you seriously. You do not convey anger or excitement. You say, look at me! I am whimsical like a drug induced hallucination and attention-starved like an MTV reality show star! You are a signal that the writer doesn't trust the reader. You are a period with a hi-top fade, this is not the 80s, and you need a haircut.
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About Me
- Tobin F. Terry
- GREG M: The stuff you write, Tob, it's like...potato chips. You know for sure it's not good for you. ME: and you just can't stop? GREG M: No, I've never had that problem.
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