Sunday, June 1, 2014

Say NO! to overusing the exclamation mark

Day 19 / 30-Day Writing Challenge


June 1. A new month. A good time to make a writing resolution.

Lots of people toss resolution in the same category as budget and diet. A category they don't want to touch. I'm with them on the budget and diet thing, but for me, resolutions aren't like that.

Here's my resolution: Cut back on using the exclamation point. How that punctuation mark started littering my writing I'm not sure. But it's time to knock it off.

I'm not completely giving it up. I'm using them as they were intended -- to indicate an emphatic emotion, interjection, or command.

Check out this essay on the exclamation mark by Melissa Dahl for "New York Magazine." I like how she refers them as "shouty and juvenile."

This post got me thinking about how Catholicism uses the term "ejaculation" to describe a mini-prayer meant to be repeated throughout the day.

I bet those ejaculations use exclamation marks.


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