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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Cindy Disses Exclamation Points?!

On Facebook, CindyH started quite a conversation with a simple statement that she's "not a fan of exclamation marks. Especially, first thing in the morning!!" That prompted a colleague who shares our mutual Facebook space to say that she received an e-mail Tuesday morning containing 3 exclamation points -- and the writer wasn't even angry. In fact, the information shared was fairly simple stuff. Another commenter declared that he wasn't a fan of the semi-colon but that "it'd do in a pinch." Still another said that the punctuation "?!" was called an "interrobang." Me? I rarely use exclamation points, figuring the writing and subject matter should take care of the excitement.

Question: Do you use exclamation points? What's your favorite punctuation mark?

D.F. Oliveria

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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