Well, here I am ,writing again! I have learned to love writing, and I do not obsess over it. I hope people like what I write and want to read it, but, if they don’t what can you do! Obsessing over it isn’t going to make people read what I have to write or say through my writing. I have made several observations about my writing, which, I think are funny. If you have read my stories, articles, poems, public relations stuff and other odds and ends for and on friendlysuggestions.com you know that I love the exclamation point!
I use it frequently, almost as much as I use the period to end sentences! I feel that I want to emphasize the many important thoughts and insights that I have, and an exclamation point will insure that this will happen! Of this, I’m sure! See, you noticed that, didn’t you!
I think it is better for me, to use my good friend the exclamation point, rather than the underscore or the ALL CAPS thing. A SENTENCE THAT IS ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS IS WEIRD! AND A SENTENCE WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND UNDERSCORED, AS WELL, IS REALLY UNACCEPTABLE!
I sometimes use italic, bold and bold italic for emphasis, but only minimally. I am not addicted to this practice, like I am with the use of the exclamation point! I sometimes use the alternating exclamation point and question mark. Have you noticed!? I mean sometimes I have a question and a statement in the same sentence and it needs both, or even several of each! For example, if I were to be really emotionally tied into a story and my fish, Bob LeFish were to criticize it, as he will! I might say, “Bob why are you being so critical of my writing, you have not written anything in months!?!?!?” “I would suggest that you focus on your writing and security job and leave this human alone!?!?” See what I mean!?
So punctuation is important! I hope you like my writing and that all the exclamation points don’t scare you away. They are there to highlight important points! If I were to loose my beloved exclamation point, I’d be OK, you’d miss out and my writing would be exclamation pointless. I have decided that I am going to use my friend the exclamation point, as I please, period!!!
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Books on writing and punctuation at Amazon!
Do you mean exclamation mark!?
Yes! Exclamation mark is actually correct, but the both are used interchangeably!?!?
Exclamation instead of Explanation…
Thanks! Mike! For your persistence in this, it has been great! I was incorrect in a big way and am glad you let me know. This way I can fix the story, as I have! I’d like to send you a hat to thank you for discovering this error and bringing it to my attention. Send your address to me at hal@friendlysuggestions.com and let me know what color you would like (white, black, pink, red or blue and I will send one right out to you! And thanks for the friendly suggestion!
hal
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
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A fellow gammarr nerd! I actually came up with the idea for a blog post, then looked it up. I did some copy editing so it annoys me when I don’t know something. You’re right, it does read strange when you write the exclamation point first. I think the question mark belongs first because you’re asking a question the exclamation point is merely adding a different element to it. (Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this!)
Hahahaha. I’m not too bright today. Great post!
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Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website? My blog is in the very same niche as yours and my visitors would really benefit from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Many thanks!