Some friends and I were having an email exchange about exclamation points. It wasn’t my first online conversation about punctuation by a long shot. A few high school friends and I reminisced just the other day about diagramming sentences. Oh, diagramming—so much has been lost without you, including an understanding of why not to say, “between you and I.”
There’s something I vaguely remember about not using a lot of exclamation points. (Okay, most of my remembering feels a little vague these days, but that’s another story.) Something about being allotted 10 or 12 or some similar limited number of exclamation points to use in your life. The “rule” is imaginary and silly and the number is unimportant but I like the idea of using them sparingly. Like a spice. Too many exclamations and nothing is worthy of exclamation.
Nothing, I noted in the conversation, is worthy of multiple exclamation points, except maybe a college acceptance, book publication, new baby. Something at least slightly momentous. Something that, in person, might elicit a raised glass or raised eyebrows.
But isn’t that just the thing: “in person.” How to approximate a little enthusiasm in an email? Type “that’s terrific.” in response to some mildly pleasant news and it feels a little flat. Maybe even snarky: yeah, terrific. Without the in-person smile or happy tone of voice, a little more is needed. The spice. Just a pinch–not a handful, but some. Even if we’re using a little more than usual. Even if we’re using more than the lifetime allotment. To make it closer to what it would sound like if we were really together.