So I was talking with some friends the other day and we all realized that we all feel a little self-conscious about using exclamation points in emails, texts, etc...You see, in today's high-tech "we need it now" world, we depend on these forms of communication. The key is communicating clearly... which can be tough when you are trying to make a point, show an emotion, etc without a voice, tone, or any kind of inflection. My friends and I all agreed that using exclamation points can sometimes give off the wrong impression....make you seem a little overly excited. I'm not REALLY screaming at the top of my lungs with excitement when I say "you should come over if you want!".....Yes, I am excited that we may hang out tonight, but I'm surely not screaming about it (chances are you are a friend that I see often, so it's really not THAT exciting, no offense... I still love you hypothetical friend/*boyfriend). But here is the predicament....If I DO NOT enter the exclamation point you get this "you should come over if you want". Now the reader is thinking, "really? That's it? She doesn't seem too excited about me coming over....maybe I shouldn't"...do you see the problem here? The exclamation point is the problem. It takes a statement from one extreme to the other.... seeming completely caustic and biting to way too overzealous. This is why I need to invent a new type of punctuation...something that says "I'm really happy that this is a possibility, but I'm not **creepily over excited, nor am I apathetic to the idea. I'm just happy, and hope you are too"....Someone suggested that I use "~"...so from now on I will use this. Or I will invent my own punctuation and become a billionaire. Thanks for reading~
JH
*the fact that the boyfriend in this scenario is hypothetical is clue that I am still single and available....since anyone in the world that has internet access COULD read this (and agrees with my punctuation conundrum of course), I figured why not put it out there, eh?
**creepily is not a real word. I recognize that fact, but I like it and I will use it.
2 comments:
Good Blog Jen! I am obsessive with the exclamations! But I do think about it when I use them... I also like the ... as though I am inserting a pause is my thought. Keep em coming!
Just thought that I would peruse the ol' Bliggity Blog. I enjoy it, Jenny~
I tend to over use exclamations in emails but, oddly, when it comes to text messages I use perfect punctuation and grammar. I'm not really sure why.
The one part of speech/punctuation that I love to use though is the ellipses. It's just a nice way of saying that I have other thougths going on but they aren't really important enough to "spell out" in writing...
Keep up the good work!
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