Fun & Famous
the power of the exclamation point
Perhaps it’s because I chose journalism as a profession, or maybe it’s just because I’m a major nag; but I am very allergic to exclamation points. Every sentence that ends with an exclamation point immediately looses any shred of intellect and makes everything seem as though it is being said by a hysterical fourteen year old. If you need an exclamation point to bring a point across in your sentence, you need to make it a better sentence. It’s that simple.
Whenever I see an exclamation point in a magazine, on a website, in a blog or wherever, it makes my skin crawl. That’s how much I can’t stand it. Plus, I have a hard time taking the author in question seriously anymore. And the odds of being hired as an intern if you send in an application with exclamation points are slim to none. Mostly none. Sorry, not sorry.
‘A sentence that needs an exclamation point to make a point, is a bad sentence.’
A sentence that needs an exclamation point to make a point, is a bad sentence! It makes everything sound over-exaggerated and loud! Like your walking down the streets protesting! Obviously, there are a couple of exceptions. Take informal emails as an example. I’ll end those with the occasional exclamation pint: “Lots of love! Xoxo, L.”
A while back I realized that there are certain situations that do call for an exclamation point. In fact, they require them. A friend and I were texting to set up a date to meet up which is always a major hassle. We both travel a lot and have busy schedules, so we ended up setting a date near the end of May. Seriously. “We can’t flake on this one”, is what I sent her. Her response: “the date has been set in stone.”
Until a few days later I had to send her a message and cancel our appointment due to a work trip. “Sorry sorry sorry, don’t hate me, but I’ll be out of town on the date we had planned. Are you available on the 21st? Or the week after that? Kisses.” Those were my exact words. She didn’t respond. Not even a week later even though I could see that she had read it. It’s not the first time we had cancelled on each other, so she couldn’t possibly really be that upset now could she?
‘She wasn’t pissed off because I cancelled, she was pissed off about the way I did it.’
So, I decided to give her call. Long story short: She wasn’t pissed off because I cancelled, she was pissed off about the way I did it. “Seriously, your message was so rude and careless; I just didn’t feel the need to respond.” I know I have the tendency to unintentionally come off as rude when I don’t mean it, but I was highly unaware of this at the time. I re-read the message I had sent to her and thought; damn it, she’s right. Compare these two:
“Sorry sorry sorry, don’t hate me, but I’ll be out of town on the date we had planned. Are you available on the 21st? Or the week after that? Kisses.”
“Sorry sorry sorry! Don’t hate me! I’ll be out of two on the date we had planned. Are you available on the 21st? Or the week after? Kisses!!!”
The first message is pretty formal and to the point, whilst the second messages conveys how sorry I am. So: lesson learned. From now on I’ll send out messages with bad news or that say something irritating with so many exclamation points, that there will be no more mix ups. And whenever I find someone annoying and want to let them know without getting into a fight, I’ll just be passive aggressive about it: “Fine. Talk to you later.”
Looks like exclamation points aren’t so bad after all!
