Are we using ! too much?

unfortunately, i am an ignoramus who couldn't write a cogent english sentence if my life depended on it, and i'm a total scofflaw. see? i don't even capitalize, and i'm thinking of dropping whatever this thing (') is called from all contractions.

i blame Tom Wolfe for the flood of exclamation points into the writing of the general public. at a deeper level, i think it is also one of many little symptoms of the post literate age. if we all brushed up on our Vico and Mcluhan, we wouldnt worry so much about it. see, that? you hardly noticed the absence of that (') thing.

one thing i am atavistic about is paragraphs. i like them. i think they are useful. they are useful because they, like exclamation points and run-on sentences are a verbal, and verbal is what the post literate world is about.

Aw, man. Why did you have to point this out? Ever since I started blogging a couple of years ago, I've slipped into the comfort of using ! all the time, even when it's not warranted. Especially when it's not warranted, actually. Now, when there are so many well-articulated comments here in this discussion, I feel like I'd be betraying my inner style Nazi if I continued to leave this habit unchecked. I will now take a pledge to not use unwarranted !s for a week. Actually, I'll start with a day and see how that goes.

I didn't realize so many of our Nonstop readers were language/word/punctuation geeks like me. Love it.

Has anyone ever read the book, "The Mac/PC is not a Typewriter?" It came out in the '90s by Robin Williams, the queen of graphical typography. She covers all of these types of character usage in logos, headlines and copy! A must read...

http://www.amazon.com/Mac-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0201782634

I overuse ! quite a bit in my correspondence to people. But even more than that, I overuse the ellipsis "..." I also use it out of its proper context as well. I just like the way it looks in my text.

Hi. I'm certainly no journalist. But I do a lot of writing. The one thing you said that stood out was that your background is newspaper writing. My first thought was, well, this ain't a newspaper. Those are where some hard & fast rules almost always apply. One of the cool things about the whole democratization of information dissemination is that people start making their own ideas & rules. The ones that stick go viral and spread. I appreciate your taking into account that blogs are personal in nature. I'm sure that means a lot to the people who write for you. Finally, it seemed to me the ! was better left in where you took it out and out where you chose to leave it. If anything, your post will force your readers to at least pause when considering the use of the exclamation point. And that's good news! ;)

I'm a frequent user of ! as well, but I'm trying to kick the habit. When I write an email I try to use no more than 2. When I tweet I try to use a variety of ! and :) without over using either. It can be a challenge to portray emotion through text, but the best writers can do it without a ton of extra punctuation. I try to avoid ALLCAPS as much as possible as it should be reserved to REALLY trying to prove a point (almost too much emotion sometimes if you ask me).

All in all it depends on the audience, the platform, and person.

I'm still surprised at the number of "professional" copywriters that use ! or !!!!. Like a former boss used to say... one ! is acceptable (maybe), any more than that is so high school newspaper!!!! (<= sarcasm).

And don't even get me started on double spaces between sentences! It's called typesetting... not pounding out a letter on a typewriter.

LOL!!!!! Nah, I'm like Sushi, guilty of exclamation overuse but try to tread cautiously in order to convey the right emotion. But I think since I blog & tweet, sometimes my brain wiring has a hard time differentiating the tone when I'm doing a story.

I'm guilty of overusing the exclamation mark, but I also try to take it out when it's unneeded. Unfortunately it's difficult to read emotion through text and some people may take it personally if the lack of exclamation mark conveys less emotion than you originally intended. This is why I tread cautiously with my choice of punctuation.

I like Non Stop Honolulu! Traffic Alert! Most ono! Burp! OMG!
I like Non Stop Honolulu. Traffic Alert. Most ono. Burp. OMG.

I can see your point about the "!". There are certain instances that an exclamation point might be worthy. One other option is all caps but that doesn't seem professional for a e-zine like NSHNL. I guess from a first person narrative one way to get the point across is to use the exclamation point. A sort of expression to say "this is the one" or an expression of absoluteness.

As for me, I don't mind seeing the exclamation point especially when its used to denote a dish or food serving that was overwhelmingly delicious and to die for. It adds to the writers sense of awe that this food dish was unimaginably delicious or uniquely colorful and tasty.

As for me, I don't use exclamation points that much in my write ups but online, well that's another story.

As you said Diane, it's the Editor's choice as to whether you leave the writers written words verbatim or if you choose to edit it would you lose the sense of "exclamation" that the writer wanted to get across.

Lol, Diane. I remember your reaction when we got our VIP Pick email interviews (from some pretty famous people) with 5-6 exclamation marks in a row. (ZOMG, Zippy's Chili is the best thing EVAR!!!11!1!!!) It's like some people think the more exclamation marks they tack onto the end of a sentence, the more happiness or excitement they're conveying. Personally, I find more than one tacky, and I only use them for casual conversations.