Stop the madness! Rules for using the exclamation point
It is easily the most overused and abused punctuation mark in the English language. Here’s how you should be employing it. (Hint: Sparingly.)
A recent study reported on PR Daily found that “43 percent of online daters consider bad grammar a ‘major’ turnoff.”
So I think it’s safe to say that bad grammar can affect relationships. And so can punctuation. Does anyone remember the “Seinfeld” episode in which Elaine breaks up with her boyfriend over his failure to use an exclamation point?
In case you missed it, Elaine’s boyfriend had written down some phone messages, one of which said that her friend had baby. Elaine found it “curious” that he didn’t think someone having a baby warranted an exclamation point.
“Maybe I don’t use my exclamation points as haphazardly as you do,” he quips.
When Elaine later tells Jerry about the break up, he responds: “It’s an exclamation point! It’s a line with a dot under it!”
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