\t\t\t\tMake your [exclamation] point!?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a fan of the \u201980s sitcom Seinfeld<\/em>, you probably remember when Elaine broke up with her boyfriend because he failed to use an exclamation point when taking a phone message from her friend who just had a baby. (A baby!)<\/p>\n Actually, this isn\u2019t surprising\u2014studies have shown that women use exclamation points more than men.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seems that people either love \u2019em or hate \u2019em. Elaine obviously loved them!<\/p>\n F. Scott Fitzgerald obviously didn\u2019t. He is reported to have said, \u201cCut out all those exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n But, Scott was a man. And apparently a little grumpy. What\u2019s wrong with laughing at your own jokes (especially when no one else is)?<\/p>\n Anyway, what are we up to when we use exclamation points?<\/p>\n When we write e-mails, texts, and letters (and blog posts), we use them to express astonishment (\u201cYou won’t believe what just happened!”) or excitement (\u201cI\u2019m all packed and can\u2019t wait to go glamping this weekend!\u201d).\u00a0But I think we mainly use them to convey that we’re\u00a0the kind of people that can get excited about another person’s ideas and, in general, excited about another person. It’s like a pat on the back. We use an exclamation mark to reassure someone that we’re in their camp, we like them, we’re enthusiastic about them!<\/p>\n Here, try this:<\/p>\n I’m okay with your text.<\/p>\n OR<\/p>\n I’m okay with your text!!!!!<\/p>\n Big difference, right? The first one says, “It’s okay. It could have been better, but I can live with it.”<\/p>\n The second one says, “I’m more than okay with your text, I love it!”<\/p>\n Have you ever wondered where the exclamation point came from?<\/p>\n In Latin, the exclamation \u201cio\u201d was a strong word denoting triumph or celebration. It was also used to punctuate a joke. Somewhere along the line, people decided to shorten it up and put the \u201ci\u201d above the \u201co\u201d … and there you have it. Or, rather, there you have it!<\/p>\n An exclamation point is all about emphasis.<\/p>\n Depending on how many you use, you can give a plain ol\u2019 sentence a little bit of oomph or a whole lotta pizzazz. You can share your excitement, or you can scare the buzzards right out of someone.<\/p>\n For example, sending someone a message that says, \u201cWe need to leave now!\u201d might just mean you\u2019re anxious to get on the road, but send someone a message that says, \u201cWe need to leave now!!!!!!!\u201d and they might think they’re driving you to the ER.<\/p>\n I once had an employee at my farm who put at least one exclamation mark after every sentence in her e-mails. Some sentences had anywhere from 2 to\u00a010 exclamation marks. My take on it was that she was one busy bee trying to reassure people that she thought they were\u00a0awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She certainly didn’t lack enthusiasm in real life, so at least she was consistent!!! (I think three on that sentence.)<\/p>\n Properly punctuating can be positively perplexing, but it can also be fun. Sometimes when we\u2019re having one of our late nights in the design studio trying to meet a magazine\u00a0deadline (after 11 years!!!!), I\u2019ll accidentally call an exclamation mark an explanation<\/em> mark. I wonder what an explanation mark might look like?\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Make your [exclamation] point!? If you\u2019re a fan of the \u201980s sitcom Seinfeld, you probably remember when Elaine broke up with her boyfriend because he failed to use an exclamation point when taking a phone message from her friend who … Continue reading