Another bonkers directive from the Department of Education, those who spend their working lives finding more pointless things to mess up lives of children and teachers. The Powers That Be have decided that children are using exclamation marks far too much in their writing, probably because of text speak.
If this is so, and it may well be, all the PTB need to do is to advise teachers - get your children to go easy on the exclamation marks. This could lead to some interesting classroom discussions about what exclamation marks are, how they work, and why it's not a good idea to overuse them.
But no, they sent out a directive advising that 'only sentences beginning 'How' or 'What' should have an exclamation mark'. Yes, they really did say that! Honestly! Or rather, 'How yes, they really did say that! What honestly!'
What I want to know is whether this is supposed to apply to direct speech. As in the following,
"No," I shouted. "Don't touch it. It's a bomb. It could go off at any moment. Get down."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 comments:
What about the town of Westward Ho! The exclamation mark is part of the name.
Ho, ho, ho!
That's a thought. what is Father Christmas supposed to say?
I've been paying attention to my usage of exclamation marks in writing ever since I read this, and I don't think I've come across a single exclamation that began with "What" or "How"...
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