Semicolon and the Exclamation Point!!

I am resolved to STOP using the exclamation point after every sentence! I am also resolved to start using the semicolon; to learn how and when to better use it; to add dimension to my blogging.

Got this from a post at Challies

Honoring the Semicolon

by Lewis Thomas

I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added; it reminds you sometimes of the Greek usage. It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn’t get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.

Thomas’ thoughts on the ever-annoying exclamation mark.

Exclamation points are the most irritating of all. Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought! It is like being forced to watch someone else’s small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention. If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn’t need a mark to point it out. And if it is really, after all, a banal sentence needing more zing, the exclamation point simply emphasizes its banality!

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You can read the rest of Thomas’ thoughts on punctuation here.

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Have a great day; enjoy spring; love somone! oops...someone.