Exclamation Marks!!!

[Dave]

I read this in the the London Evening Standard but here it is in the Daily Telegraph too Nonsense! Backlash over new school rules on exclamation marks

The Government has decided in it's wisdom that exclamation marks can only be used after sentences that begin with "How" or "What".

Help! I use them all the time!

Apparently, children are using them too much. Even more than me! OMG!!! So, this is some kind of social engineering to prevent it.

The Standard column had quotes from Wordsworth (not the best example grammatically) and Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon English was different.) However, I found that quite amusing.

Also, if you read the new Bill Bryson book (he takes the British Citizenship test) then this is the same Government who have spelling and geographical mistakes within the Citizenship test.

Heaven forbid! Would it not be better to leave the teaching of English to English teachers rather than to Civil Servants? OMG!!!

 

[Loren]

My understanding is there is a global shortage of these symbols, so various institutions have been asked to conserve.

This is not any different than the vowel shortage seen in some Eastern European names.

I remember that former President Clinton was so concerned that he directed the US military to act on humanitarian grounds with Operation Vowel Movement.

No exclamation marks were used in the message.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Sentences that begin with How or What seem more suited to the use of question marks than exclamation points. Or at least the How ones do. What a crock!

 

[Droflet]

Nicely put Dusty. Imagine that. A government doing something stupid. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! What's the world coming to!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Alex The G and T]

WTF !?!?!!

 

[Kylara]

I feel more interrobangs are required.

Surely teaching people how to use punctuation properly may help a little more than hoarding exclamations?!

 

[Dan Jones]

How are we supposed to write sentences beginning with 'how' with exclamation marks!

What are we going to do!

It's good to see the Government have solved the housing crisis, the migration crisis, resolved its differences with the EU, settled the dispute over junior doctoral contracts, settled the tax affairs of certain organisations, blah blah etc etc etc so that they have time and resource to deal with the really important stuff.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Okay. a bit off topic - but only a bit. Here's a punctuation question concerning exclamation and question marks in comics.

When the last word of a bubble is in bold:

( YOU SET​

THE BOMB TO GO​

OFF WHEN? )​

It looks weird having the punctuation mark unbolded (is there such a word?).

But equally weird in bold:

( YOU SET ​

THE BOMB TO GO​

OFF WHEN? )​

Any thoughts?

 

[Dave]

I take it that the bolding is to indicate raised voice or vocal inflection? If so then I have no idea if there are any set rules, but personally, I prefer the second one. You'd need to ask the Civil Servants for confirmation!!!!!!

 

[Gonk the Insane]

To boldly go...

Sorry, couldn't help myself!

 

[Cathbad]

They're my punctuation marks, and I'll use em as I wanna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TonyHarmsworth]

Carry on like that and there'll be no more left for others.

I was told you should never need to use an exclamation mark except in dialogue and I've always tried to follow that rule.

 

[Cathbad]

Carry on like that and there'll be no more left for others.

I sowwy

 

[Dave]

Ah! The Great Exclamation Mark Famine. That must be similar to the shortage of "U"s that struck in Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots.

 

[Randy M.]

Settle down everyone! Let's not get excited! Conservation of exclamation marks is a legacy of the 20th century, when writers seemed to decide that if wording and situation don't get across the proper emotion without punctuation telling you how to feel, the writing failed! For the most part, I agree! Though, certainly, if I were to write pulpishly or in the style of centuries previous to the 20th, I would spare myself no exclamations!!!


Randy M!

 

[Adam Stubbings]

I HATE it when people end almost every line of dialogue with an exclamation mark, its so annoying because it says to me that the character is shouting when they clearly arent.

"Hello," said Tom.

"Hello!" said Tom (except he didnt say it, he shouted it)

 

[TonyHarmsworth]

Yes, Adam. Totally inappropriate.

 

[Old_Man_Steve2016]

I love exclamation marks!!! I find it's an effective way of expressing emotion without resorting to making a scene too wordy.
I am a bit used to comic book writing, where a writer only gets a 3cm circle to write in (if that at all).

I don't think it's necessary for the "narration" to have exclamation points. The words themselves are enough to carry the emotion of the scene without.