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Pedants' corner

The exclamation marks are wrecking my head (!)

15 replies

tak1ngchances · 23/10/2012 17:28

Why on earth do some posters insist on putting a flaming exclamation mark at the end of every sentence?
Gaaarrrrgh. I can't read their posts at all, it makes me want to gouge my own eyes out.

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nickeldaisical · 23/10/2012 17:31

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Trills · 23/10/2012 17:33

Multiple exclamation marks are the sign of an unbalanced mind.

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tak1ngchances · 23/10/2012 17:35

Really Trills? Or are you just making that up so I feel sympathetic towards the perpetrators?

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nickeldaisical · 23/10/2012 17:36

that's me then Grin

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Trills · 23/10/2012 17:44

Terry Pratchett said so.

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GrimmaTheNome · 23/10/2012 17:52

You're right, he did. He tends to be spot on with regard to such matters.

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DystopianReality · 23/10/2012 17:56

I HATE exclamation marks. They are overused and a sign of an unimaginative mind, maybe unbalanced too. Try reading anything from the NCT... covered in them esp. the god awful birth stories.
I don't even like one, nevermind multiple.

What is their purpose? Are people being humerous? Sarcastic? Trying to be self-deprecating but actually having a stealth boast?

BTW I also hate 'love' at the end of emails and lots of kisses.

I'm a miserable pedant

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PseudoBadger · 23/10/2012 18:01

Oh no! I think I have slipped into this bad habit recently!

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tak1ngchances · 23/10/2012 18:06

I don't mind kisses. I can handle the kisses. It's the exclamation marks and occasional interrobangs that set me off .

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ZZZenAgain · 23/10/2012 18:11

imagine if we did it Spanish style with exclamation marks at the beginning and end of a sentence. I do like an exclamation mark personally

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DisappointedHorse · 23/10/2012 18:14

They irritate me too but not as much as lol.

A friend's husband puts it after everything he types, particularly on Facebook. I now think he's a moron.

There will be a notable lack of exclamation marks on this thread!

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GrimmaTheNome · 23/10/2012 18:15

It strikes me that Dystopian's name suits her.

Occasionally you may come across someone for whom the (over)use of exclamation marks is simply so in keeping with their character that it may be acceptable. I write software and used to have a colleague - lovely chap, he was just so damned excited about the work we were doing that his comments and messages to users would have a liberal sprinkling of exclamation marks. He was neither unimaginative nor unbalanced, just a small Indian genius with a character akin to a Jack Russell puppy. Grin

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GrimmaTheNome · 23/10/2012 18:18

When reading aloud to DD, I've quite often wished we did punctuate the Spanish way - its annoying when you start a sentence in a neutral tone, and only find at the end that you should have been interrogative or excited, which can entirely change the meaning.

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ZZZenAgain · 23/10/2012 18:34

yes, that's true.

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cardibach · 23/10/2012 22:14

I like them at the end of a genuinely exclamatory sentence. Unfortunately, many people can not recognise one.

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