Hahah, well, you know I'm a sucker for an exclamation point and use them as liberally as Americans use salt. Your essay has spurred my thinking and my own assessment of my punctuation, and thus an essay of my own is brewing. Someone told me once that when they finally met me in person, all my exclamation points made sense. And please never fall into our present day trap of over-exclaiming because then your periodic punctuations of excitement wouldn't mean as much to your long distance friends! ;)
Both? The way I view it is that one of the best features of English is that it is alive! (I didn't want or need that exclamation point, I placed it there to be silly.) On some days I strongly prefer to read poetic, experimental, or even treatise type pieces, on others, I want an easy read. What I want to do on most days is to read. I appreciate and respect excellent English skills, yet I do not possess them. You, possess them. I respect and appreciate that.
Hahah, well, you know I'm a sucker for an exclamation point and use them as liberally as Americans use salt. Your essay has spurred my thinking and my own assessment of my punctuation, and thus an essay of my own is brewing. Someone told me once that when they finally met me in person, all my exclamation points made sense. And please never fall into our present day trap of over-exclaiming because then your periodic punctuations of excitement wouldn't mean as much to your long distance friends! ;)
Thank you very much for the thoughtful words and emphatic sentences, Trilety. And I'm pleased to hear that this spurred something creative for you.
Both? The way I view it is that one of the best features of English is that it is alive! (I didn't want or need that exclamation point, I placed it there to be silly.) On some days I strongly prefer to read poetic, experimental, or even treatise type pieces, on others, I want an easy read. What I want to do on most days is to read. I appreciate and respect excellent English skills, yet I do not possess them. You, possess them. I respect and appreciate that.
Thank you for the comment and the kind words, Jeanne. I really appreciate it.
Terrific! The last sentence says it all!
Ha—thank you.