There seems to be an indiscriminate overuse of the exclamation mark at present. Especially, this is the case in electronic communication, like blogs, emails and social networking sites. What is the point?!? (yes, pun intended)
The REAL use for an exclamation mark is in the place of a full stop, as follows:
* following a command - eg. Stop thief! Go away! Come here now!
* after an exclamation(who'd have thought?) - eg. Well done! No way! Congratulations! That's crazy!
* to show sarcasm or irony - eg. With small children in the house, who needs sleep!
Most commonly, the exclamation mark is found in dialogue to indicate the speaker's tone of voice. This is the likely explanation for its prevalence in electronic communication - in a medium which has been stripped of verbal tones (volume, pitch, pace) and complementary body language, the exclamation mark picks up the ball and runs with it.
The problem is that, if it is employed too often (eg. Hi!!! Great to hear from you!!! We're great!!!!!! I'm in love!), the reader can end up missing the really exciting part of the message. So, use your exclamation mark sparingly and, when you do, let it have the impact it deserves!
!!
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