! or !!!!!!?
On the death of Elmore Leonard, who apparently deplored the use of exclamation marks to the point that he devised a rule to limit their use, BBC News Magazine asks whether we use too many of them. And, in defence of bangorrheaics everywhere, the BBC shows how they can add intonation to otherwise bland text:
"See you there!" - in response to an invitation to a party - implies enthusiasm about attending. "See you there." merely states that you will be there. It could just as well be a rendezvous by the gallows as a joyous social occasion.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Leonard's rule was written thus:
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.
Elmore Leonard, WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle, The New York Times
But, given that this is a statement of strong opinion, surely it should be written …You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose!…
? Obviously his antipathy rose to the point that he couldn't write properly. Or perhaps it just meant that he didn't have anything worth stating!!!!!!!!!(exclamation)
There is, of course, a difference between a statement, which doesn't require or justify an exclamation mark, and an exclamation, which does. And I think that was the point Leonard was making; people use exclamation marks for statements that don't warrant them. Possibly. (shrug)
I admit that I use exclamation marks to emphasise statements that otherwise are not really exclamations per se, and the BBC's example above is a case in point. Elmore Leonard would almost certainly not approve! But I doubt that he's turning in his grave over it!!