Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal. The great Steve Jobs himself has attributed that quote to Pablo Picasso, and I’m happily stealing this blog entry from fellow Dark Angel, friend and all round brilliant writer Elen Lewis. Elen and I were both on a Dark Angels Writers Master Class at Merton College Oxford earlier this year and I’ve happily lifted one of her posts for this blog. By Elen Lewis In the first of a regular series on better business writing, some thoughts on exclamation marks. Unless you live in Westward Ho! or Saint-Louis-du-Ha!Ha! in Quebec, use them sparingly. In Chekhov’s short story The Exclamation Mark, a civil servant trying to get to grips with the rules of punctuation develops a paranoid fantasy, in which everyday objects transform themselves into malevolent exclamation marks. I’m with F Scott Fitzgerald who wrote, “Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.” Elmore Leonard wrote of exclamation marks: “You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.” An exclamation mark is like shouting or whooping. It’s like screaming, ‘I REALLY MEAN THIS’, after you’ve spoken. And in business writing exclamation marks are not to be encouraged, aside from special occasions. Too many emails use exclamation marks, and they’re especially irritating when used in groups of two or three. Admittedly, email has seen exclamation marks make something of a comeback. Before the 1970s, typewriters did not have anything akin to an exclamation mark on the keyboard, which may have been another reason for their rarity. It was a lot of effort to type a full stop, then back space, push the shift key and type an apostrophe. So, when to use exclamation marks? Use them sparingly and then they will have the impact you need. They should be used to demonstrate surprise, anger or joy. That’s all. And, if you’re not sure, use a full stop instead. So is ‘Thanks!!!’ more grateful than thanks? I don’t think so. Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Order Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Order Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection Cheap Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Buy Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus